Add Packages

Introduction

Xmake has built-in support for package dependency integration. You can declare the required dependency packages through the add_requires interface.

Then, through the add_packages interface, bind the declared package to the required compilation target, for example:

xmake.lua

add_requires("tbox 1.6.*", "libpng ~1.16", "zlib")

target("foo")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_packages("tbox", "libpng")

target("bar")
    set_kind("binary")
    add_files("src/*.c")
    add_packages("zlib")

Among them, add_requires is a global interface, used for package configuration declaration, and Xmake will trigger search and installation based on the declared package.

Since a project may have multiple target programs, each target program may require different dependency packages, so we also need to bind the target through add_packages.

In the above configuration example, the foo target binds the tbox and libpng packages, while the bar target binds the zlib package.

Basic Usage and Common Scenarios

• add_requires("pkgname") declares dependencies, supports version, optional, alias, etc.
• add_packages("pkgname") binds packages to targets, automatically adds links, includedirs, etc.

Typical Scenarios

• Multiple targets depend on different packages
• One target depends on multiple packages
• Supports C/C++/Fortran/multi-platform

API Details

Specify Package Version

add_requires("tbox 1.6.*", "libpng ~1.16", "zlib")

Optional Package

add_requires("foo", {optional = true})

Disable System Library

add_requires("foo", {system = false})

Specify Alias

add_requires("foo", {alias = "myfoo"})
add_packages("myfoo")

Platform/Arch Limitation

add_requires("foo", {plat = "windows", arch = "x64"})

Pass Package Configs

add_requires("tbox", {configs = {small = true}})

Pass Configs to Dependencies

add_requireconfs("spdlog.fmt", {configs = {header_only = true}})

Advanced Features

• Semantic version, branch, commit support
• Debug/release package support
• Multi-repo, private repo support
• Local/system/remote package priority
• Extra build arguments

Package Instance APIs

Available in custom rules, after_install, etc.:

• package:name() get package name
• package:version_str() get version
• package:installdir() get install dir
• package:get("links") get link libraries
• package:get("includedirs") get include dirs

Typical Examples

1. Optional Dependency

add_requires("foo", {optional = true})
target("bar")
    add_packages("foo")

2. Depend on Branch/Commit

add_requires("tbox master")
add_requires("zlib 1.2.11")

3. Pass Configs to Package

add_requires("spdlog", {configs = {header_only = true}})

4. Depend on Local Package

1. Create a local package repository directory in your project (e.g. local-repo/packages/foo/xmake.lua).
2. Add the local repository in xmake.lua:

add_repositories("myrepo local-repo")
add_requires("foo")

3. Local package structure example:

local-repo/
  packages/
    foo/
      xmake.lua

4. Now you can use the local package just like an official one via add_requires("foo").

Best Practices

1. Use add_requires + add_packages for declaration and binding
2. Use {optional = true} for optional packages
3. Use {plat=..., arch=...} for precise control on multi-platform
4. Use add_requireconfs for recursive dependency config
5. Use xmake require --info pkg to query package parameters

More Information

• Official package usage: Using Official Packages
• Package dependency API: Package Dependency API
• Package instance APIs: package instance API
• Package management and search: You can also use the xrepo CLI tool to search, install, and uninstall packages.