Shipp - Deadly simple package manager

Managing dependencies yourself in a C/C++ project can be a pain. Conan and vcpkg might be a solution, but as far as I know, those requires a registry.

I just want to point to a git repository and say "this is my dependency, build it".

This is how Shipp was born. If you want to read more about it, I wrote an article on my blog here.

Installation

$ cargo install --path .

Then make sure $HOME/.cargo/bin is in your $PATH.

Usage

Create a package by adding a shipp.json file at the root of your Git repository:

{
  "name": "mypackage",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "scripts": {
    "build": "make all DESTDIR=$SHIPP_DIST_DIR",
    "install": "make install DESTDIR=$SHIPP_DIST_DIR"
  },
  "dependencies": [
    {
      "name": "libfoo",
      "url": "https://github.com/example/libfoo.git",
      "version": "0.1.0"
    }
  ]
}

NB: Your dependencies need to be Shipp packages as well, with their own shipp.json file at the root of the repository.

Then run the following commands:

To fetch dependencies (git clone or git pull) in .shipp/deps/:

$ shipp deps.get

To build dependencies and install them in .shipp/dist/:

$ shipp deps.build

To build the current project and install it in .shipp/dist/:

$ shipp build

To create a tar.gz archive of the .shipp/dist/ folder:

$ shipp dist

Design

When running shipp deps.get, Shipp will clone all your dependencies into the .shipp/deps folder. Then, recursively, it will read your dependencies's shipp.json file to pull the transitive dependencies into that same folder.

All your direct and transitive dependencies are therefore automatically vendored in your project (similar to node_modules with npm).

NB: Your dependencies should also be a Shipp package (aka: have a shipp.json file at the root of their repository).

The command shipp deps.build will run the build command and the install command of your dependencies (in the correct order). Those commands rely on the dependencies's build system, without you needing to add too much plumbing.

The build command is in charge of building the package, and the install command is in charge of installing the built artifacts into the .shipp/dist folder.

This folder should contain the following:

• include/: where your C/C++ headers will be installed
• lib/: where your static/shared libraries will be installed
• bin/: where your executables will be installed
• share/ & ...: your resources and other files

This folder is where you should look for to configure the -I include_dir and -L library_dir compiler flags (or equivalent for your build system).

Both the build and install commands are given the following environment variables:

Variable	Example value	Description
SHIPP_TARGET_ARCH	x86_64	Current platform architecture
SHIPP_TARGET_FAMILY	unix or windows	Current platform OS family
SHIPP_TARGET_OS	linux	Current platform OS
SHIPP_DIST_DIR	/path/to/.shipp/dist	Absolute path to the install directory

See those pages for more information:

• https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/env/consts/constant.ARCH.html
• https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/env/consts/constant.FAMILY.html
• https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/env/consts/constant.OS.html

The shipp build command works like deps.build but for your current project.

Finally, the shipp dist command will archive the .shipp/dist folder into an archive named myproject-version.tar.gz, which you should be able to distribute.

License

This project is released under the terms of the MIT License.