Generators

Generators are specific components that provide the information of dependencies calculated by Conan in a suitable format for a build system. They normally provide Conan users with a conanbuildinfo.XXX file that can be included or injected to the specific build system. The file generated contains information of dependencies in form of different variables and sometimes function helpers too.

You can specify a generator in:

• The [generators] section from conanfile.txt.

• The generators attribute in conanfile.py.

• The command line when installing dependencies conan install --generator.

Available generators:

• cmake
• cmake_multi
• cmake_paths
• cmake_find_package
• cmake_find_package_multi
• visual_studio
• visual_studio_multi
• visual_studio_legacy
• xcode
• compiler_args
• gcc
• boost-build
• b2
• qbs
• qmake
• scons
• pkg_config
• virtualenv
• virtualenv_python
• virtualbuildenv
• virtualrunenv
• youcompleteme
• txt
• json
• premake
• make
• markdown
• deploy

Important

If none of these generators fit your needs, you can create your own Custom generator.