settings.yml

The input settings for packages in Conan are predefined in ~/.conan/settings.yml file, so only a few like os or compiler are possible. These are the default values, but it is possible to customize them, see Customizing settings.

# Only for cross building, 'os_build/arch_build' is the system that runs Conan
os_build: [Windows, WindowsStore, Linux, Macos, FreeBSD, SunOS]
arch_build: [x86, x86_64, ppc32, ppc64le, ppc64, armv5el, armv5hf, armv6, armv7, armv7hf, armv7s, armv7k, armv8, armv8_32, armv8.3, sparc, sparcv9, mips, mips64, avr, s390, s390x]

# Only for building cross compilation tools, 'os_target/arch_target' is the system for
# which the tools generate code
os_target: [Windows, Linux, Macos, Android, iOS, watchOS, tvOS, FreeBSD, SunOS, Arduino]
arch_target: [x86, x86_64, ppc32, ppc64le, ppc64, armv5el, armv5hf, armv6, armv7, armv7hf, armv7s, armv7k, armv8, armv8_32, armv8.3, sparc, sparcv9, mips, mips64, avr, s390, s390x, asm.js, wasm]

# Rest of the settings are "host" settings:
# - For native building/cross building: Where the library/program will run.
# - For building cross compilation tools: Where the cross compiler will run.
os:
    Windows:
        subsystem: [None, cygwin, msys, msys2, wsl]
    WindowsStore:
        version: ["8.1", "10.0"]
    Linux:
    Macos:
        version: [None, "10.6", "10.7", "10.8", "10.9", "10.10", "10.11", "10.12", "10.13", "10.14"]
    Android:
        api_level: ANY
    iOS:
        version: ["7.0", "7.1", "8.0", "8.1", "8.2", "8.3", "9.0", "9.1", "9.2", "9.3", "10.0", "10.1", "10.2", "10.3", "11.0"]
    watchOS:
        version: ["4.0"]
    tvOS:
        version: ["11.0"]
    FreeBSD:
    SunOS:
    Arduino:
        board: ANY
    Emscripten:
arch: [x86, x86_64, ppc32, ppc64le, ppc64, armv5el, armv5hf, armv6, armv7, armv7hf, armv7s, armv7k, armv8, armv8_32, armv8.3, sparc, sparcv9, mips, mips64, avr, s390, s390x, asm.js, wasm]
compiler:
    sun-cc:
        version: ["5.10", "5.11", "5.12", "5.13", "5.14"]
        threads: [None, posix]
        libcxx: [libCstd, libstdcxx, libstlport, libstdc++]
    gcc:
        version: ["4.1", "4.4", "4.5", "4.6", "4.7", "4.8", "4.9",
                "5", "5.1", "5.2", "5.3", "5.4", "5.5",
                "6", "6.1", "6.2", "6.3", "6.4",
                "7", "7.1", "7.2", "7.3",
                "8", "8.1", "8.2",
                "9"]
        libcxx: [libstdc++, libstdc++11]
        threads: [None, posix, win32] #  Windows MinGW
        exception: [None, dwarf2, sjlj, seh] # Windows MinGW
        cppstd: [None, 98, gnu98, 11, gnu11, 14, gnu14, 17, gnu17, 20, gnu20]
    Visual Studio:
        runtime: [MD, MT, MTd, MDd]
        version: ["8", "9", "10", "11", "12", "14", "15"]
        toolset: [None, v90, v100, v110, v110_xp, v120, v120_xp,
                v140, v140_xp, v140_clang_c2, LLVM-vs2012, LLVM-vs2012_xp,
                LLVM-vs2013, LLVM-vs2013_xp, LLVM-vs2014, LLVM-vs2014_xp,
                LLVM-vs2017, LLVM-vs2017_xp, v141, v141_xp, v141_clang_c2]
        cppstd: [None, 14, 17, 20]
    clang:
        version: ["3.3", "3.4", "3.5", "3.6", "3.7", "3.8", "3.9", "4.0",
                "5.0", "6.0", "7.0",
                "8"]
        libcxx: [libstdc++, libstdc++11, libc++]
        cppstd: [None, 98, gnu98, 11, gnu11, 14, gnu14, 17, gnu17, 20, gnu20]
    apple-clang:
        version: ["5.0", "5.1", "6.0", "6.1", "7.0", "7.3", "8.0", "8.1", "9.0", "9.1", "10.0"]
        libcxx: [libstdc++, libc++]
        cppstd: [None, 98, gnu98, 11, gnu11, 14, gnu14, 17, gnu17, 20, gnu20]

build_type: [None, Debug, Release, RelWithDebInfo, MinSizeRel]
cppstd: [None, 98, gnu98, 11, gnu11, 14, gnu14, 17, gnu17, 20, gnu20]  # Deprecated, use compiler.cppstd

As you can see, the possible values settings can take are restricted in the same file. This is done to ensure matching naming and spelling as well as defining a common settings model among users and the OSS community. If a setting is allowed to be set to any value, you can use ANY. If a setting is allowed to be set to any value or it can also be unset, you can use [None, ANY].

However, this configuration file can be you can modified to any needs, including new settings or subsettings and their values. If you want to distribute a unified settings.yml file you can use the conan config install command.

Note

The settings.yml file is not perfect nor definitive and surely incomplete. Please share any suggestion in the Conan issue tracker with any missing settings and values that could make sense for other users.

Architectures

Here you can find a brief explanation of each of the architectures defined as arch, arch_build and arch_target settings.

x86: The popular 32 bit x86 architecture.
x86_64: The popular 64 bit x64 architecture.
ppc32: The PowerPC 32 bit architecture.
ppc64le: The PowerPC 64 bit Little Endian architecture.
ppc64: The PowerPC 64 bit Big Endian architecture.
armv5el: The ARM 32 bit version 5 architecture, soft-float.
armv5hf: The ARM 32 bit version 5 architecture, hard-float.
armv6: The ARM 32 bit version 6 architecture.
armv7: The ARM 32 bit version 7 architecture.
armv7hf: The ARM 32 bit version 7 hard-float architecture.
armv7s: The ARM 32 bit version 7 swift architecture mostly used in Apple’s A6 and A6X chips on iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPad 4.
armv7k: The ARM 32 bit version 7 k architecture mostly used in Apple’s WatchOS.
armv8: The ARM 64 bit and 32 bit compatible version 8 architecture. It covers only the aarch64 instruction set.
armv8_32: The ARM 32 bit version 8 architecture. It covers only the aarch32 instruction set (a.k.a. ILP32).
armv8.3: The ARM 64 bit and 32 bit compatible version 8.3 architecture. Also known as arm64e, it is used on the A12 chipset added in the latest iPhone models (XS/XS Max/XR).
sparc: The SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) originally developed by Sun Microsystems.
sparcv9: The SPARC version 9 architecture.
mips: The 32 bit MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages) developed by MIPS Technologies (formerly MIPS Computer Systems).
mips64: The 64 bit MIPS (Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipelined Stages) developed by MIPS Technologies (formerly MIPS Computer Systems).
avr: The 8 bit AVR microcontroller architecture developed by Atmel (Microchip Technology).
s390: The 32 bit address Enterprise Systems Architecture 390 from IBM.
s390x: The 64 bit address Enterprise Systems Architecture 390 from IBM.
asm.js: The subset of JavaScript that can be used as low-level target for compilers, not really a processor architecture, it’s produced by Emscripten. Conan treats it as an architecture to align with build systems design (e.g. GNU auto tools and CMake).
wasm: The Web Assembly, not really a processor architecture, but byte-code format for Web, it’s produced by Emscripten. Conan treats it as an architecture to align with build systems design (e.g. GNU auto tools and CMake).