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Are there any modern "package manager" for C?

deleted 3y ago
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elitepleb 3y ago
https://xrepo.xmake.io https://xrepo.xmake.io does a decent job at that, but then you're stuck with a modern "build system" too
humanrebar 3y ago
Conan, Spack, Nix, vcpkg, not to mention the OS specific ones. All are actively maintained. Modern means different things to different people, so I expect some people will still be looking for more answers.
- rgoulter 3y ago
  In my head, these are: - Conan and vcpkg are probably the closest equivalent to other "language package managers" (e.g. Rust's cargo, or NodeJS's NPM). - Spack is typically used in HPC/Scientific Computing domain. - Nix (and Guix) are very powerful (system) package managers; these have enough nifty features that I'd call them "next-generation". Probably also for sufficiently complicated projects, it may be worth mentioning sophisticated build tools like Bazel (which I think manages dependencies in its own way).
  - tgamblin 3y ago
    Spack dev here. Yep it's mainly used in HPC, but we'd love to see more folks using in other areas. There is windows support now (in addition to linux and macOS), which I think was a roadblock for many, and we have gotten some very interest from folks outside the HPC community, e.g. Replica.one, who hope to use it for a software-defined OS for embedded devices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxNafpDhng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxNafpDhng (skip to ~12min for some discussion of Spack, Nix, Guix, and portage)
bluGill 3y ago
See the other replies for options. Nobody wants a package manager for C in the C world. We want a package manager for whatever language we write our code in. A lot of C code is not a single C ecosystem, but coexists with other languages, even where it is all C we often have various code generation tools that look a lot like different languages that just happen to generate C, and sometimes we want to package the into for those tools not the C output.
- humanrebar 3y ago
  Same goes for C++. And successor languages will have limited reach as long as that don't get this requirement by, for instance, exclusively servicing a language specific packaging solution.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

https://xrepo.xmake.io https://xrepo.xmake.io does a decent job at that, but then you're stuck with a modern "build system" too

humanrebar 3y ago

Conan, Spack, Nix, vcpkg, not to mention the OS specific ones. All are actively maintained. Modern means different things to different people, so I expect some people will still be looking for more answers.

rgoulter 3y ago
In my head, these are: - Conan and vcpkg are probably the closest equivalent to other "language package managers" (e.g. Rust's cargo, or NodeJS's NPM). - Spack is typically used in HPC/Scientific Computing domain. - Nix (and Guix) are very powerful (system) package managers; these have enough nifty features that I'd call them "next-generation". Probably also for sufficiently complicated projects, it may be worth mentioning sophisticated build tools like Bazel (which I think manages dependencies in its own way).
- tgamblin 3y ago
  Spack dev here. Yep it's mainly used in HPC, but we'd love to see more folks using in other areas. There is windows support now (in addition to linux and macOS), which I think was a roadblock for many, and we have gotten some very interest from folks outside the HPC community, e.g. Replica.one, who hope to use it for a software-defined OS for embedded devices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxNafpDhng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMxNafpDhng (skip to ~12min for some discussion of Spack, Nix, Guix, and portage)

bluGill 3y ago

See the other replies for options. Nobody wants a package manager for C in the C world. We want a package manager for whatever language we write our code in. A lot of C code is not a single C ecosystem, but coexists with other languages, even where it is all C we often have various code generation tools that look a lot like different languages that just happen to generate C, and sometimes we want to package the into for those tools not the C output.

humanrebar 3y ago
Same goes for C++. And successor languages will have limited reach as long as that don't get this requirement by, for instance, exclusively servicing a language specific packaging solution.