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[ARTICLE · art-114022] src=ziggit.dev ↗ pub= topic=developer-tools verified=true sentiment=· neutral

C (and C++*) precompiled dependencies using Conan

Conan, the C/C++ package manager, now supports precompiled dependencies via its integration with Zig's build system, allowing C and C++ projects to use prebuilt binaries through Conan Center Index. The packages are built with libc++ on macOS, libstdc++11 on Linux, and MSVC on Windows, with users able to recompile locally for different configurations. The feature is tested in the PR's test suite and is expected to be a valid workflow for C/C++ projects.

read1 min views1 publishedAug 28, 2026

Thanks!

  • How does conan maintain ABI compatiblity? What libc and libstdc++ are the prebuilt binaries compiled against?

Packages are generated following a profile, and locally/in a CI those can be set to use whatever the project requires. For C++, the canonical repository for dependencies (Conan Center Index) builds them with libc++

in Macos, libstdc++11

in Linux , and msvc’s in Windows, but users are able to re-compile locally if different configurations are desired.

Is this meant to be only used with zig programs? Build.zig can also be used by C/C++ projects.

This would in fact be able to be used by C/C++ projects too, yes. The idea would be similar and this is tested in the test suite for the PR, so we expect this to be a valid workflow too

I found the comment on a PR in conan repo very hard to read, as it seemed mostly a dump from a LLM.

Yes, as the implementation is not final, not much time was provided to have solid wording in the examples/docs, with the expectation that things might change before being merged. I have updated the main post with a full example so that reading it is not required to see it working, let me know if that helps

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