Custom integrations

If you intend to use a build system that does not have a built-in generator, you may still be able to do so. There are several options:

First, search in bintray. Generators can now be created and contributed by users as regular packages, so you can depend on them, use versioning, and evolve faster without depending on the conan releases. See generator packages.
You can use the text or json generator. It will generate a text file, simple to read and to parse that you can easily parse with your tools to extract the required information.
Use the conanfile data model and access its properties and values, so you can directly call your build system with that information, without requiring to generate a file.
Write and create your own generator. So you can upload it, version and reuse it, as well as share it with your team or community. Check generator packages too.

Note

Need help integrating your build system? Tell us what you need. info@conan.io

Use the JSON generator

Specify the json generator in your conanfile:

[requires]
fmt/4.1.0@<user>/<stable>
Poco/1.9.0@pocoproject/stable

[generators]
json

A file named conanbuildinfo.json will be generated. It will contain the information about every dependency:

{
  "dependencies":
  [
    {
      "name": "fmt",
      "version": "4.1.0",
      "include_paths": [
        "/path/to/.conan/data/fmt/4.1.0/<user>/<channel>/package/<id>/include"
      ],
      "lib_paths": [
        "/path/to/.conan/data/fmt/4.1.0/<user>/<channel>/package/<id>/lib"
      ],
      "libs": [
        "fmt"
      ],
      "...": "...",
    },
    {
      "name": "Poco",
      "version": "1.7.8p3",
      "...": "..."
    }
  ]
}

Use the text generator

Just specify the txt generator in your conanfile:

[requires]
Poco/1.9.0@pocoproject/stable

[generators]
txt

And a file is generated, with the same information as in the case of CMake and gcc, only in a generic, text format, containing the information from the deps_cpp_info and deps_user_info. Check the conanfile package_info method to know more about these objects:

[includedirs]
/home/laso/.conan/data/Poco/1.6.1/lasote/stable/package/afafc631e705f7296bec38318b28e4361ab6787c/include
/home/laso/.conan/data/OpenSSL/1.0.2d/lasote/stable/package/154942d8bccb87fbba9157e1daee62e1200e80fc/include
/home/laso/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.8/lasote/stable/package/3b92a20cb586af0d984797002d12b7120d38e95e/include

[libs]
PocoUtil
PocoXML
PocoJSON
PocoMongoDB
PocoNet
PocoCrypto
PocoData
PocoDataSQLite
PocoZip
PocoFoundation
pthread
dl
rt
ssl
crypto
z

[libdirs]
/home/laso/.conan/data/Poco/1.6.1/lasote/stable/package/afafc631e705f7296bec38318b28e4361ab6787c/lib
/home/laso/.conan/data/OpenSSL/1.0.2d/lasote/stable/package/154942d8bccb87fbba9157e1daee62e1200e80fc/lib
/home/laso/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.8/lasote/stable/package/3b92a20cb586af0d984797002d12b7120d38e95e/lib

[bindirs]
/home/laso/.conan/data/Poco/1.6.1/lasote/stable/package/afafc631e705f7296bec38318b28e4361ab6787c/bin
/home/laso/.conan/data/OpenSSL/1.0.2d/lasote/stable/package/154942d8bccb87fbba9157e1daee62e1200e80fc/bin
/home/laso/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.8/lasote/stable/package/3b92a20cb586af0d984797002d12b7120d38e95e/bin

[defines]
POCO_STATIC=ON
POCO_NO_AUTOMATIC_LIBS

[USER_MyRequiredLib1]
somevariable=Some Value
othervar=Othervalue

[USER_MyRequiredLib2]
myvar=34

Use conan data model (conanfile.py)

If you are using any other build system you can use conan too. In the build() method you can access your settings and build information from your requirements and pass it to your build system. Note, however, that probably is simpler and much more reusable to create a generator to simplify the task for your build system.

from conans import ConanFile

class MyProjectWithConan(ConanFile):
   settings = "os", "compiler", "build_type", "arch"
   requires = "Poco/1.9.0@pocoproject/stable"
   ########### IT'S IMPORTANT TO DECLARE THE TXT GENERATOR TO DEAL WITH A GENERIC BUILD SYSTEM
   generators = "txt"
   default_options = {"Poco:shared": False, "OpenSSL:shared": False}

   def imports(self):
      self.copy("*.dll", dst="bin", src="bin") # From bin to bin
      self.copy("*.dylib*", dst="bin", src="lib") # From lib to bin

   def build(self):
      ############ Without any helper ###########
      # Settings
      print(self.settings.os)
      print(self.settings.arch)
      print(self.settings.compiler)

      # Options
      #print(self.options.my_option)
      print(self.options["OpenSSL"].shared)
      print(self.options["Poco"].shared)

      # Paths and libraries, all
      print("-------- ALL --------------")
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.include_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.lib_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.bin_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.libs)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.defines)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.cflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.cxxflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.sharedlinkflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info.exelinkflags)

      # Just from OpenSSL
      print("--------- FROM OPENSSL -------------")
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].include_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].lib_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].bin_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].libs)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].defines)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].cflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].cxxflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].sharedlinkflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["OpenSSL"].exelinkflags)

      # Just from POCO
      print("--------- FROM POCO -------------")
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].include_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].lib_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].bin_paths)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].libs)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].defines)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].cflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].cxxflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].sharedlinkflags)
      print(self.deps_cpp_info["Poco"].exelinkflags)


      # self.run("invoke here your configure, make, or others")
      # self.run("basically you can do what you want with your requirements build info)


      # Environment variables (from requirements self.env_info objects)
      # are automatically applied in the python ``os.environ`` but can be accesible as well:
      print("--------- Globally -------------")
      print(self.env)

      print("--------- FROM MyLib -------------")
      print(self.deps_env_info["MyLib"].some_env_var)


      # User declared variables (from requirements self.user_info objects)
      # are available in the self.deps_user_info object
      print("--------- FROM MyLib -------------")
      print(self.deps_user_info["MyLib"].some_user_var)

Create your own generator

There are two ways in which generators can be contributed:

Forking and adding the new generator in the conan codebase. This will be a built-in generator. It might have a much slower release and update cycle, it needs to pass some tests before being accepted, but it has the advantage than no extra things are needed to use that generator (once released in conan)
Creating a custom generator package. You can write a conanfile.py and add the custom logic for a generator inside that file, then upload, refer and depend on it as any other package. These generators have to be discovered (search), but they have many advantages: much faster release cycles, independent from the main conan codebase, can be versioned, so backward compatibility and upgrades are much easier.