Documentation for Conan C/C++ package manager: https://conan.io

How to build

• Install python and pip docs.

• Install the requirements (sphinx):

  $ pip install -r requirements.txt

• Build the documentation:

  $ make html

How to read the built docs

Open a browser and select the _build/html/index.html file.

Example:

$ firefox _build/html/index.html

How to contribute

To make any contribution to Conan documentation fork this repository and open a Pull Request.

Style Guidelines

This guidelines are just general good practices for the formatting and structure of the whole documentation and do not pretend to be a stopper for any helpful contribution. Any contribution that may include relevant information for Conan users will always be welcomed.

Conan documentation is written in reStructuredText and follows reStructuredText Markup Specification.

Quick reStructuredText is also used for reference.

Any detail not covered by this guidelines will follow the aforementioned rules.

Section titles

Use section titles in this level of importance:

Section Title
=============

Section Title
-------------

Section Title
+++++++++++++

Section Title
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Text emphasis/highlighting

• Bold text to highlight important text:

  Note the simple scenario of a **header-only** library. Such package...
  

• Italics to refer to file names, directory names and paths.

  If you have a look to the *test_package* folder, you will realize that the *example.cpp* and the *CMakeLists.txt* files don't have
  anything special. The *test_package/conanfile.py* file is...
  

• Command inline literals to refer to command line, both full commands and command line arguments, or any extract of a full command.

  To create a conan package you can use :command:`conan create`.  You can see a :command:`git clone` command... You may call it with the :command:`--keep-source` option to avoid deleting and fetching the source.
  

• Inline literals to refer to code or text inside recipes:

   ``package()`` -> conanfile.py method
   ``cmake`` -> generator in conanfile.txt
   ``settings`` -> variable inside a ConanFile class in conanfile.py
  

  Like this:

  Note that the ``build_id()`` method uses the ``self.info_build`` object to alter the build hash.
  

• Other names like CMake, Autotools, Conan, Visual Studio should not be emphasized, just use a capital letter or follow the convention (like first and second capitalized letters for CMake).

code-blocks

Use code-blocks for code snippets or command line actions and follow the specific language indentation. Documentation makes an extensive use of bash, python, txt and cmake code-blocks.

.. code-block:: python

    from conans import ConanFile

    class EigenConan(ConanFile)
        name = "eigen"
        version = "3.3.4"

        def source():
            tools.get("https://some_url.org")
            ...

.. code-block:: text

    [requires]
    poco/1.9.4
    zlib/1.2.11

.. code-block:: bash
   :emphasize-lines: 3

    $ conan source . --source-folder src
    $ conan install --install-folder build_x86 -s arch=x86
    $ conan build . --build-folder build_x86 --source-folder src
    $ conan export-pkg . Hello/0.1@user/stable --build-folder build_x86

Indentation and line length

Make sure all indentation is done with spaces. Normally 2 space indentation for bulleted lists and 4 space indentation for code blocks. In some cases a 3 space indentation is needed for reStructuredText specifics like toc-trees:

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   creating_packages/getting_started
   creating_packages/package_repo

The maximum line length for documentation is 140 characters except for lines inside code-blocks, external links or references.

Do not leave any unnecessary or trailing spaces.

Text boxes

Also called Admonitions, they are eye-catching texts with a clear purpose like warnings, tips or important content.

Use them in the following importance order:

1. caution
2. attention
3. warning
4. important
5. note
6. tip

.. warning::

    In the ConanCenter repository there are binaries for several mainstream compilers...

.. tip::

    Using profiles is strongly recommended. Learn more about them...

References

References are commonly used in the documentation and it's always a good way to highlight texts and give an implicit or explicit importance to something.

Internal reference

Use an internal reference when you want to refer to a specific section in this documentation. Most of the sections have a reference mark just before their names so you can reference it.

.. _conan_export_pkg_command:

conan export-pkg
================

...

To add a reference to the conan export-pkg command from another text:

Read more about the :ref:`conan export-pkg<conan_export_pkg_command>` command.
Or reference the :ref:`conan_export_pkg_command` directly.

External references

Use external references with external URL at the bottom of the file like this:

Submit a pull request to include it in `conan-center-index`_.
...
...

.. _`conan-center`: https://center.conan.io

In case you want to use explicit external references with a link, make sure it doesn't exceed the maximum line length, otherwise it should considered to be written as a normal external reference.