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Asset caching with vcpkg

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Note

This section covers an experimental feature of vcpkg which may change or be removed at any time.

Asset caching is a feature that allows vcpkg to use alternative download endpoints to acquire a package's assets. When asset caching is enabled vcpkg attempts to download assets (such as source code and build tools) from a configured mirror location. If the asset is not available in the mirror location, vcpkg will download it from its original source and then store a copy in the mirror for future use.

Asset caching can help with these common development scenarios:

  • Improving reliability of continuous integration runs.
  • Mirroring download assets in trusted locations for air-gapped environments.
  • Maintaining continuity of business if third party sources are changed or become unavailable.

Configuration

Asset caching is configured via:

  • The X_VCPKG_ASSET_SOURCES environment variable, or
  • The --x-asset-sources command-line option.

In both cases, the expected value is a semicolon-delimited list of sources. Each source has a specific syntax depending on its storage backend (see the asset caching reference documentation to learn how to configure asset caching sources).

Next step

Here are some tasks to try next: