Verified on CentOS7 and Windows 10.

1. Install v2ray and run proxy

v2ray unblocks github access from mainland China. Install v2ray clients and set IE proxy _only_ on Windows, bootstrap.bat & vcpkg.exe picks it automatically.

2. Download vcpkg from github and bootstrap

Download from: https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/releases

Export vcpkg-2022.08.15 directory as ${VCPKG_ROOT}.

3. Install drogon framework for demo

The drogon framework is a high performance application framework, including client & server supports. vcpkg builds static(*.a) library by default, use x64-linux-dynamic for dynamic(*.so) library. The repo version requires g++-8 to build, install from CentOS SCL:

To build with g++-7, manually install boost-filesystem package in vcpkg, and edit ${VCPKG_ROOT}/ports/drogon/portfile.cmake and comment out:

On Windows, open the command line for Visual Studio develop environment.

If openssl build fails, run:

If other errors, try to update to recent github ports. In my case, libmariadb build failed, that have been fixed in master.

4. Export drogon framework

5. Add a demo program

Linux dynamic build is community supported, invoke cmake with:

Now build with make or Visual Studio.

6. Stick to a specific version

add a vcpkg.json file:

It sticks to drogon 1.8.0 and openssl 1.1.1n. ${VCPKG_ROOT} now required to be a git repository. In your project directory, install specific versions of libraries by running:

Run cmake:

Now ldd output shows openssl 1.1 (default build is 3.0):

The only difference is the existence of vcpkg.json file, when using versioning.

7. Binary caching

If you change the root path of vcpkg, better clean up the cache, or build may fail. It’s $HOME/.cache/vcpkg/archives under Linux, and %LOCALAPPDATA%\vcpkg\archives under Windows.