global.conf

Warning

This new configuration mechanism is an experimental feature subject to breaking changes in future releases.

The global.conf file is located in the Conan user home directory.

Global configuration

core:required_conan_version = expression allows defining a version expression like >=1.30. Conan will raise an error if its current version does not satisfy the condition
core.package_id:msvc_visual_incompatible allows opting-out the fallback from the new msvc compiler to the Visual Studio compiler existing binaries

Tools configurations

Tools and user configurations allows them to be defined both in the global.conf file and in profile files. Profile values will have priority over globally defined ones in global.conf, and can be defined as:

[settings]
...

[conf]
tools.microsoft.msbuild:verbosity=Diagnostic
tools.microsoft.msbuild:max_cpu_count=20
tools.microsoft.msbuild:vs_version = 16
tools.build:processes=10
tools.ninja:jobs=30
tools.gnu.make:jobs=40

To list all possible configurations available, run conan config list.

core:required_conan_version: Raise if current version does not match the defined range.
core.package_id:msvc_visual_incompatible: Allows opting-out the fallback from the new msvc compiler to the Visual Studio compiler existing binaries
core:default_profile: Defines the default host profile (‘default’ by default)
core:default_build_profile: Defines the default build profile (None by default)
tools.android:ndk_path: Argument for the CMAKE_ANDROID_NDK
tools.build:skip_test: Do not execute CMake.test() and Meson.test() when enabled
tools.build:processes: Default jobs number
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:generator: User defined CMake generator to use instead of default
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:msvc_parallel_compile: Argument for the /MP when running msvc
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:find_package_prefer_config: Argument for the CMAKE_FIND_PACKAGE_PREFER_CONFIG
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:toolchain_file: Use other existing file rather than conan_toolchain.cmake one
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:user_toolchain: Inject existing user toolchain at the beginning of conan_toolchain.cmake
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:system_name: Define CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME in CMakeToolchain
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:system_version: Define CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION in CMakeToolchain
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:system_processor: Define CMAKE_SYSTEM_PROCESSOR in CMakeToolchain
tools.env.virtualenv:auto_use: Automatically activate virtualenv file generation
tools.files.download:retry: Number of retries in case of failure when downloading
tools.files.download:retry_wait: Seconds to wait between download attempts
tools.gnu:make_program: Indicate path to make program
tools.gnu.make:jobs: Argument for the -j parameter when running Make generator
tools.google.bazel:config: Define Bazel config file
tools.google.bazel:bazelrc_path: Defines Bazel rc-path
tools.microsoft.msbuild:verbosity: Verbosity level for MSBuild: ‘Quiet’, ‘Minimal’, ‘Normal’, ‘Detailed’, ‘Diagnostic’
tools.microsoft.msbuild:max_cpu_count: Argument for the /m (/maxCpuCount) when running MSBuild
tools.microsoft.msbuild:vs_version: Defines the IDE version when using the new msvc compiler
tools.microsoft.msbuilddeps:exclude_code_analysis: Suppress MSBuild code analysis for patterns
tools.microsoft.msbuildtoolchain:compile_options: Dictionary with MSBuild compiler options
tools.ninja:jobs: Argument for the –jobs parameter when running Ninja generator

Configuration from build_requires

From Conan 1.37, it is possible to define configuration in packages that are build_requires. For example, assuming there is a package that bundles the AndroidNDK, it could define the location of such NDK to the tools.android:ndk_path configuration as:

import os
from conans import ConanFile

class Pkg(ConanFile):
    name = "android_ndk"

    def package_info(self):
        self.conf_info["tools.android:ndk_path"] = os.path.join(self.package_folder, "ndk")

Note that this only propagates from the immediate, direct build_requires of a recipe.