[vcpkg|manifest] Missing a way to pass --head to certain dependencies.

[Neumann-A]

The vcpkg.json should probably have an extra field vcpkg_additional_args or similar to pass additional vcpkg arguments to the build of some dependencies

[strega-nil]

Is there any other reason you want this besides passing --head?

[Neumann-A]

@strega-nil: currently cannot think of anything more. Just always want to install eigen3 --head and probably a few other dependencies. Especially if the ports in questions are your own ports via a overlay you might want to use --head for development without always changing the ref&hash

[strega-nil]

Would it be okay to add something like a "x-extra-arguments": [ "head" ] to the dependency field?

[strega-nil]

Or maybe in vcpkg-configuration.json, x-dependency-arguments: { "eigen3": [ "head" ] }

[sylveon]

I would also want this, to always install the head of wil and rapidjson, however I feel that vcpkg-configuration is not a place where I'd want to put it in manifest mode, since it directly concerns my project, not vcpkg's configuration

[strega-nil]

@sylveon vcpkg-configuration.json is the project configuration that doesn't belong in vcpkg.json: in other words, the stuff that people depending on you shouldn't care about.

[sylveon]

My project won't build with the very old stable version of RapidJSON, so knowing that it's head should matter, no?

[strega-nil]

it's one of those things that versioning should fix; using head is not supported and often doesn't work, and so it's not a part of the dependency interface of your library.

[sylveon]

I've skimmed through the versioning docs and can't seem to find anything related to installing the head of a library. Is that feature not present at the moment?

[strega-nil]

poke @vicroms ^

[sylveon]

Alternatively, instead of head, is it possible to pin a dep to an arbitrary commit with versioning?

[RomanValov]

+1 for a way to pass head via manifest. My use case is private lib and private registry.
Private lib is actively changed during the application development.
Thus I would like to commit to my private lib and re-configure and re-build my dependent app.
Instead every time I have to copy paste commit hash id into registry portfile.

[spinicist]

Was this functionality ever implemented? I have a similar use case to @RomanValov

[gix]

This is not only useful for private ports. For example Detours had its last release somewhere in 2016 (used by its port), but has seen considerable maintenance since then to fix issues with newer compilers.

[Neumann-A]

For example Detours had its last release somewhere in 2016 (used by its port), but has seen considerable maintenance since then to fix issues with newer compilers.

Then update the port and use version-date. Pointing vcpkg to releases only is not mandatory. It is preferred but not a hard requirement.

[sylveon]

This is my exact use case actually

[jpgaribotti]

I have the same use case as @RomanValov and @spinicist: developping an application and library in a private registry in parallel. Which seems a pretty normal situation, particularly in professional environments. I want to move to vcpkg, but without support for this workflow it would be difficult. I'm using scripts to facilitate it, but it's still less than ideal.