Installing specific version of a package on CLI

[martingalvan-volue]

Hi, I wish to install a specific version of a package using the command line. How can I do this? The only documentation I've found is this link, describing an rather complicated process using manifest mode: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/consume/lock-package-versions

[bansan85]

Unfortunately, it's not possible without the manifest mode.

#25622

[StarGate-One]

You can create an overlay port that selects/installs the version of a port you need without manifest mode.
See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/concepts/overlay-ports

[martingalvan-volue]

Hi, thanks for the responses.

Unfortunately, it's not possible without the manifest mode.

That's unfortunate since this sounds like a basic feature which is present in every other dependency management software I've used. @LilyWangLL I see you've been assigned this issue, do you know what is the ETA for it?

You can create an overlay port that selects/installs the version of a port you need without manifest mode. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/concepts/overlay-ports

That sounds also quite complex for such a basic task. I just wish to do something like e.g. vcpkg install some_lib=4.2, without having to set up any files or additional machinery.

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[martingalvan-volue]

Pinging this issue to keep it alive.

[LilyWangLL]

There have been relevant discussions before, and based on user needs, vcpkg has added the manifest feature to support users in installing specific versions ports.

I just wish to do something like e.g. vcpkg install some_lib=4.2, without having to set up any files or additional machinery.

Regarding what you mentioned vcpkg install some_lib=4.2 about the current inability to achieve this, our current approach is to continuously update port versions in sync with upstream. With over 2000 ports in vcpkg, we cannot maintain all versions of each port.

[LilyWangLL]

You can create an overlay port that selects/installs the version of a port you need without manifest mode. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/concepts/overlay-ports

If you want to directly use the install command to install a specific version of a port, overlay-ports is the best method.

[martingalvan-volue]

There have been relevant discussions before, and based on user needs, vcpkg has added the manifest feature to support users in installing specific versions ports.

I know. This is a feature request to avoid having additional JSON files, etc. I wish to have a simple CLI way to do it, like any proper dependency manager software has.

[LilyWangLL]

I will convert this issue to discussion.

[martingalvan-volue]

Hi, I don't understand why did you convert this into a "discussion". This is a feature request.

[AugP]

Hi, I don't understand why did you convert this into a "discussion". This is a feature request.

We organize vcpkg tool feature requests under the "Ideas" category in our GitHub Discussions forum. This is the reason this was converted. We do keep an eye on this over time and also consider the number of upvotes on the original post.

[AugP]

As others have said, we do not directly support installing specific versions of a port from the command line. To understand why, there is a bit of history to explain. vcpkg's original design goal was to make it easy to install open-source libraries that "just work" with minimal effort. To accomplish this, our "ports", that is, the build recipes that build the libraries, need to be tested together as part of our continuous integration process. In order for a port to be updated, we have to successfully build it along with any ports that depend on it or it depends on. This creates a sort of contract that if you install any subset of the 2000+ ports in the curated registry, they should "just work" with each other without any version conflicts or other issues. For any given git commit ID in this GitHub repo, we have a listing for each port and the most recent successfully tested version available at that point in time. When you run "vcpkg install LIBRARY_A", you are running vcpkg in "classic mode", which was originally our only mode of operation. This installs the version of the library available in your local copy of the vcpkg repo. You couldn't say "vcpkg install LIBRARY_A@v2" because that violates the design goal of using the current tested version of the library.

Since then, we added manifest mode which was a popular request. For professional projects, we strongly recommend using manifests since they offer a number of benefits. We also added more advanced versioning support to support that experience, since professional projects tend to also want control over individual versions. This retains the concept of a versioning baseline but allows you to set additional versioning constraints on top of that. We left classic mode untouched to avoid breaking existing users, some of whom have custom scripts that run vcpkg automatically during their development or CI workflows.

We do have some commands for setting up a manifest. For example:

vcpkg new --application

vcpkg new generates new manifest and configuration files. The --application should be added if you are working on an application that consumes libraries from vcpkg (omit it if your project is a vcpkg port).

Once a manifest (vcpkg.json) file exists, you can run this:

vcpkg add port library_name1 library_name2 library_name3

This adds the requested libraries to your manifest file. While you can specify which features of a package you want this way, we don't yet support versioning for it, so you'd need to edit the vcpkg.json to add that. This is a good feature request we should consider.

To install libraries from the manifest in the current directory, you can run:

vcpkg install

Though if you're using MSBuild or CMake I recommend using our special integration for those to automatically have vcpkg get called by your build system before your main project's build starts.

In conclusion, I think we could definitely make the user experience better here, especially for simpler projects. I never liked the fracture that we have between classic and manifest mode or the fact that certain vcpkg commands are "classic mode only" even though they appear like they might work in both modes. We're still dealing with some growing pains there as the scope of this project increased. We will consider this issue further.

[martingalvan-volue]

Since then, we added manifest mode which was a popular request. For professional projects, we strongly recommend using manifests since they offer a number of benefits. We also added more advanced versioning support to support that experience, since professional projects tend to also want control over individual versions. This retains the concept of a versioning baseline but allows you to set additional versioning constraints on top of that.

Thanks for the detailed response.

My question is a bit more basic; if vcpkg already has the functionality for installing specific versions of packages in manifest mode, why can't there be a simple CLI option to get this behavior? Your explanation of the limitations of classic mode makes sense, but then manifest mode comes and works around these limitations. The request here is to expose this functionality through a single, simple command which doesn't leak away abstractions such as constructing manifest files, etc to the user. Having multiple commands that construct a manifest feels clumsy, and isn't much better than manually editing files IMHO.

More fundamentally, IMHO it's not correct to require users to understand their dependency manager's history and design decisions to be able to work with it effectively, at least on a basic level. As a developer I want to have a tool to easily manage dependencies on my project, which includes effortlessly trying out different versions of libraries, etc. The majority of my time should be dedicated to my own project, not to understanding the history and intricacies of my dependency manager. That's not to say that I shouldn't spend any time on learning to use my tools, but sometimes there comes a point where the tool starts generating problems of its own.

[martingalvan-volue]

Hi @AugP, I'd like to ping this discussion since I didn't receive an answer to my question here. If vcpkg already has the functionality for installing specific versions of packages in manifest mode, why can't there be a simple CLI option to get this behavior?

[jonolds]

this is honestly the most infuriating topic ever. I do not want to create a stupid manifest, I just want to install a global package in the most common, fastest way possible. these peoples' brains are broken.

[KRJackLee]

For manifest mode, it's often tedious to specify " builtin-baseline", which should be the commit of vcpkg where the version of the specific package matches in versions/baseline.json, isn't it? If not, how can I locate the commit hash without digging commits?

[Osyotr]

git rev-parse HEAD

[dg0yt]

For a single "specific package", there is overrides to simply write the desired version literally:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/users/versioning#overrides

builtin-baseline is for the default version for all ports.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/users/versioning#baselines
It can be updated with vcpkg x-update-baseline.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/commands/update-baseline