How to skip a dependency?

[zoharl3]

Copying from here.

In my manifest, I specify that I want suitesparse. It has a dependency lapack, and another package (not even sure which) has a dependency openblas.

These two dependencies are installed and their libraries are added to my project without making a pip. I don't want them since I use intel-mkl instead.

Another scenario, cgal installs and sets boost without a pip. It decides on a version, and I can't override it.

How do I tell vcpkg to just install a library without its dependencies?

[autoantwort]

See here: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/cppblog/using-system-package-manager-dependencies-with-vcpkg/

You create an empty overlay port for these packages

[zoharl3]

Thanks, I can see how the overlays can be useful. However, they don't help in both of my cases.

1. To override lapack for suitesparse, I can create an overlay

{
    "name": "lapack",
    "version": "0"
}

(The version seems meaningless.)
This will skip the installation of lapack. It will also skip the installation of openblas, which is lapack's dependent (doesn't say so on the website).

This is fine; however, suitesparse still needs blas to built against when vcpkg installs it, and I can't specify at this point to use mkl.

I understand that it's tricky.

2. If I create an empty overlay for boost, its installation is skipped. But I still need it, only a different version. Maybe this should be classified as a bug. I specify in the manifest (no overlay) that I want boost with a specific version. Yet, it's ignored because it's cgal's dependent, which dictates which boost would be installed.

[autoantwort]

This will skip the installation of lapack. It will also skip the installation of openblas, which is lapack's dependent (doesn't say so on the website).

It says so, it is a transitive dependency (lapack -> clapack -> blas -> openblas)

suitesparse still needs blas to built against when vcpkg installs it, and I can't specify at this point to use mkl.

You could create an overlay port so that suitesparse uses mkl.

If I create an empty overlay for boost, its installation is skipped. But I still need it, only a different version.

Use the versioning feature to specify which version of boost you want: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/vcpkg/consume/boost-versions

[zoharl3]

Thanks for the first two.

About boost. I've already specified an override version. It works if cgal isn't there. Otherwise, cgal overrides it, and my override is ignored. An example:

{
  "dependencies": [
    {
      "name": "cgal"
    },
    {
      "name": "boost"
    }
  ],
  "builtin-baseline": "edc84ff66e6262a9f7565c28eb76577aeab9c5aa",
  "overrides": [
    {
      "name": "cgal",
      "version": "5.6.1"
    },
    {
      "name": "boost",
      "version": "1.80.0"
    }
  ]
}

This installs boost 1.86.0 instead of 1.80.0.