conan.tools.system.package_manager

Important

This feature is still under development, while it is recommended and usable and we will try not to break them in future releases, some breaking changes might still happen if necessary to prepare for the Conan 2.0 release.

The tools under conan.tools.system.package_manager are wrappers around some of the most popular system package managers for different platforms. You can use them to invoke system package managers in recipes and perform the most typical operations, like installing a package, updating the package manager database or checking if a package is installed.

You can use these tools inside the system_requirements() method of your recipe, like:

conanfile.py

from conan.tools.system.package_manager import Apt, Yum, PacMan, Zypper

def system_requirements(self):
    # depending on the platform or the tools.system.package_manager:tool configuration
    # only one of these will be executed
    Apt(self).install(["libgl-dev"])
    Yum(self).install(["libglvnd-devel"])
    PacMan(self).install(["libglvnd"])
    Zypper(self).install(["Mesa-libGL-devel"])

Conan will automatically choose which package manager to use by looking at the Operating System name. In the example above, if we are running on Ubuntu Linux, Conan will ignore all the calls except for the Apt() one and will only try to install the packages using the apt-get tool. Conan uses the following mapping by default:

Apt for Linux with distribution names: ubuntu, debian or raspbian
Yum for Linux with distribution names: pidora, scientific, xenserver, amazon, oracle, amzn, almalinux or rocky
Dnf for Linux with distribution names: fedora, rhel, centos, mageia
Brew for macOS
PacMan for Linux with distribution names: arch, manjaro and when using Windows with msys2
Chocolatey for Windows
Zypper for Linux with distribution names: opensuse, sles
Pkg for Linux with distribution names: freebsd
PkgUtil for Solaris

You can override this default mapping and set the package manager tool you want to use by default setting the configuration property tools.system.package_manager:tool.

Methods available for system package manager tools

All these wrappers share three methods that represent the most common operations with a system package manager. They take the same form for all of the package managers except for Apt that also accepts the recommends argument for the install method.

install(self, packages, update=False, check=False): try to install the list of packages passed as a parameter. If the parameter check is True it will check if those packages are already installed before installing them. If the parameter update is True it will try to update the package manager database before checking and installing. Its behaviour is affected by the value of tools.system.package_manager:mode configuration.
install_substitutes(packages_substitutes, update=False, check=True): try to install the list of lists of substitutes packages passed as a parameter, e.g., [["pkg1", "pkg2"], ["pkg3"]]. It succeeds if one of the substitutes list is completely installed, so it’s intended to be used when you have different packages for different distros. Internally, it’s calling the previous install(packages, update=update, check=check) method, so update and check have the same purpose as above.
update() update the system package manager database. Its behaviour is affected by the value of tools.system.package_manager:mode configuration.
check(packages) check if the list of packages passed as parameter are already installed.

Configuration properties that affect how system package managers are invoked

As explained above there are several configuration properties that affect how these tools are invoked:

tools.system.package_manager:tool: to choose which package manager tool you want to use by default: "apt-get", "yum", "dnf", "brew", "pacman", "choco", "zypper", "pkg" or "pkgutil"
tools.system.package_manager:mode: mode to use when invoking the package manager tool. There are two possible values:
- "check": it will just check for missing packages at most and will not try to update the package manager database or install any packages in any case. This is the default value.
- "install": it will allow Conan to perform update or install operations.
tools.system.package_manager:sudo: Use sudo when invoking the package manager tools in Linux (False by default)
tools.system.package_manager:sudo_askpass: Use the -A argument if using sudo in Linux to invoke the system package manager (False by default)

There are some specific arguments for each of these tools. Here is the complete reference:

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Apt

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the apt-get command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: ubuntu and debian.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.
arch_names: this argument maps the Conan architecture setting with the package manager tool architecture names. It is None by default, which means that it will use a default mapping for the most common architectures. For example, if you are using x86_64 Conan architecture setting, it will map this value to amd64 for Apt and try to install the <package_name>:amd64 package. You can pass this argument to override the default Conan mapping, like:

conanfile.py

...
def system_requirements(self):
    apt = Apt(self, arch_names={"<conan_arch_setting>": "apt_arch_setting"})
    apt.install(["libgl-dev"])

The default mapping Conan uses for APT packages architecture is:

self._arch_names = {"x86_64": "x86_64",
                    "x86": "i?86",
                    "ppc32": "powerpc",
                    "ppc64le": "ppc64le",
                    "armv7": "armv7",
                    "armv7hf": "armv7hl",
                    "armv8": "aarch64",
                    "s390x": "s390x"} if arch_names is None else arch_names

Methods

install(self, packages, update=False, check=False, recommends=False):: will try to install the list of packages passed as a parameter. If the parameter check is True it will check if those packages are already installed before installing them. If the parameter update is True it will try to update the package manager database before checking and installing. If the parameter recommends is False it will add the '--no-install-recommends' argument to the apt-get command call. Its behaviour is affected by the value of tools.system.package_manager:mode configuration.
update() same behaviour as the one explained in the section above.
check(packages) same behaviour as the one explained in the section above.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Yum

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the yum command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: pidora, scientific, xenserver, amazon, oracle, amzn and almalinux.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.
arch_names: this argument maps the Conan architecture setting with the package manager tool architecture names. It is None by default, which means that it will use a default mapping for the most common architectures. For example, if you are using x86 Conan architecture setting, it will map this value to i?86 for Yum and try to install the <package_name>.i?86 package.

The default mapping Conan uses for Yum packages architecture is:

self._arch_names = {"x86_64": "x86_64",
                    "x86": "i?86",
                    "ppc32": "powerpc",
                    "ppc64le": "ppc64le",
                    "armv7": "armv7",
                    "armv7hf": "armv7hl",
                    "armv8": "aarch64",
                    "s390x": "s390x"} if arch_names is None else arch_names

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Dnf

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the dnf command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: fedora, rhel, centos and mageia. This tool has exactly the same default values, constructor and methods than the Yum tool.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.PacMan

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the pacman command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: arch, manjaro and when using Windows with msys2

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.
arch_names: this argument maps the Conan architecture setting with the package manager tool architecture names. It is None by default, which means that it will use a default mapping for the most common architectures. If you are using x86 Conan architecture setting, it will map this value to lib32 for PacMan and try to install the <package_name>-lib32 package.

The default mapping Conan uses for PacMan packages architecture is:

self._arch_names = {"x86": "lib32"} if arch_names is None else arch_names

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Zypper

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the zypper command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: opensuse, sles.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Brew

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the brew command. Enabled by default for macOS.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Pkg

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the pkg command. Enabled by default for Linux with distribution names: freebsd.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.PkgUtil

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the pkgutil command. Enabled by default for Solaris.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self.

conan.tools.system.package_manager.Chocolatey

Available since: 1.45.0

Will invoke the choco command. Enabled by default for Windows.

Constructor

def __init__(self, conanfile, arch_names=None):

conanfile: the current recipe object. Always use self