This blog post summarizes changes to the vcpkg package manager as part of the 2024.11.16 registry release, 2024-11-12 tool release, as well as changes to vcpkg documentation throughout November. This release includes a command line option to force vcpkg to use classic mode even if a manifest file is found along with bug fixes.

Some stats for this period:

• There are now 2,508 total ports available in the vcpkg curated registry. A port is a versioned recipe for building a package from source, such as a C or C++ library.
• 20 new ports were added to the curated registry.
• 185 updates were made to existing ports. As always, we validate each change to a port by building all other ports that depend on or are depended by the library that is being updated for our 13 main triplets.
• 88 contributors made commits (not counting the vcpkg maintainers).
• The main vcpkg repo has over 6,400 forks and 23,300 stars on GitHub.

vcpkg changelog (2024.11.16 release)

The following changes were made in November:

• Added a command line option called –classic, which instructs vcpkg to skip looking for a manifest and run in classic mode, even if a manifest file exists in the directory hierarchy. Useful for multi-project codebases where some submodules may want run vcpkg in classic mode, while others do not (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1535).
• Fixed a bug where vcpkg was claiming that certain builds were failing due to the x-block-origin option (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-tool#1513).
• Other minor bug fixes.

Documentation changes

• Added documentation for new –classic command line option (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-docs#423).
• Updated overlay port documentation to clarify how overlay ports in subdirectories are handled by vcpkg (PR: Microsoft/vcpkg-docs#422).
• Other minor fixes (thanks @bansan85, @dg0yt, and @woopelderly!).

If you have any suggestions for our documentation, please submit an issue in our GitHub repo or see the box at the bottom of a particular article.

Total ports available for tested triplets

While vcpkg supports a much larger variety of target platforms and architectures (as community triplets), the list above is validated exhaustively to ensure updated ports don’t break other ports in the catalog.

Thank you to our contributors

vcpkg couldn’t be where it is today without contributions from our open-source community. Thank you for your continued support! The following people contributed to the vcpkg, vcpkg-tool, or vcpkg-docs repos in this release (listed alphabetically by GitHub username):

• 17steen
• ADKaster
• AenBleidd
• agl-alexglopez
• alagoutte
• albertony
• alfredh
• aluaces
• aminya
• andre-nguyen
• ankurvdev
• AnyOldName3
• autoantwort
• azure-sdk
• bansan85
• blavallee
• braindigitalis
• buck-yeh
• bw-hro
• c8ef
• cenit
• DanAlbert
• daniele77
• Deishelon
• dg0yt
• donny-dont
• eao197
• eclipse0922
• elsid
• erikyuzwa
• g-maxime
• gavinltomra
• HisuianZoroark69
• Honeybunch
• huangqinjin
• lrineau
• JacobBarthelmeh
• JanWilczek
• jgillis
• jiayuehua
• jll63
• JoergAtGithub
• johnwason
• jreichel-nvidia
• mbeutel
• metsma
• michaelmigliore
• mikaellindemann
• miyanyan
• myd7349
• n-taka
• netheril96
• Neumann-A
• nickdademo
• nirvn
• nlogozzo
• oleg-derevenetz
• Osyotr
• pedrolcl
• Poldraunic
• rinechran
• rinrab
• rogerqcify
• rtzoeller
• scotthart
• SHIINASAMA
• SidneyCogdill
• simolis3
• skypjack
• sssooonnnggg
• stemann
• SunBlack
• swebb2066
• szhorvat
• talregev
• teo-tsirpanis
• Terentyev
• theblackunknown
• Thomas1664
• tomwillow
• Tradias
• traversaro
• walbourn
• waywardmonkeys
• winsoft666
• wolfgitpr
• woopelderly
• xiaozhuai

Learn more

You can find the main release notes on GitHub. Recent updates to the vcpkg tool can be viewed on the vcpkg-tool Releases page. To contribute to vcpkg documentation, visit the vcpkg-docs repo. If you’re new to vcpkg or curious about how a package manager can make your life easier as a C/C++ developer, check out the vcpkg website – vcpkg.io.

If you would like to contribute to vcpkg and its library catalog, or want to give us feedback on anything, check out our GitHub repo. Please report bugs or request updates to ports in our issue tracker or join more general discussion in our discussion forum.