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Tutorial: Install and use packages with MSBuild in Visual Studio

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This tutorial shows you how to create a C++ "Hello World" program that uses the fmt library with MSBuild, vcpkg, and Visual Studio. You'll install dependencies, configure the project, build, and run a simple application.

Prerequisites

1 - Set up vcpkg

  1. Clone the repository

    The first step is to clone the vcpkg repository from GitHub. The repository contains scripts to acquire the vcpkg executable and a registry of curated open-source libraries maintained by the vcpkg community. To do this, run:

    git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git

    The vcpkg curated registry is a set of over 2,000 open-source libraries. These libraries have been validated by vcpkg's continuous integration pipelines to work together. While the vcpkg repository does not contain the source code for these libraries, it holds recipes and metadata to build and install them in your system.

  2. Run the bootstrap script

    Now that you have cloned the vcpkg repository, navigate to the vcpkg directory and execute the bootstrap script:

    cd vcpkg && bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

    cd vcpkg; .\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat

    cd vcpkg && ./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

    The bootstrap script performs prerequisite checks and downloads the vcpkg executable.

    That's it! vcpkg is set up and ready to use.

  1. Integrate with Visual Studio MSBuild

    The next step is to enable user-wide vcpkg integration, this makes MSBuild aware of vcpkg's installation path.

    Run

    .\vcpkg.exe integrate install

    This outputs:

    All MSBuild C++ projects can now #include any installed libraries. Linking will be handled automatically. Installing new libraries will make them instantly available.

2 - Set up the Visual Studio project

  1. Create the Visual Studio project

    • Create a new project in Visual Studio using the "Console Application" template

      create a new C++ Windows console application

    • Name your project "helloworld"

    • Check the box for "Place solution and project in the same directory."

    • Click the "Create" button

      naming your MSBuild C++ project

  2. Configure the VCPKG_ROOT environment variable.

    Note

    Setting environment variables in this manner only affects the current terminal session. To make these changes permanent across all sessions, set them through the Windows System Environment Variables panel.

    Open the built-in Developer PowerShell window in Visual Studio.

    opening built-in developer powershell

    Run the following commands:

    $env:VCPKG_ROOT = "C:\path\to\vcpkg"
$env:PATH = "$env:VCPKG_ROOT;$env:PATH"

    setting up your environment variables

    Open the Developer command prompt in Visual Studio.

    opening Visual Studio developer command prompt.

    Run the following commands:

    set "VCPKG_ROOT=C:\path\to\vcpkg"
set PATH=%VCPKG_ROOT%;%PATH%

    setting up your environment variables

    Setting VCPKG_ROOT helps Visual Studio locate your vcpkg instance. Adding it to PATH ensures you can run vcpkg commands directly from the shell.

  3. Generate a manifest file and add dependencies.

    Run the following command to create a vcpkg manifest file (vcpkg.json):

    vcpkg new --application

    The vcpkg new command adds a vcpkg.json file and a vcpkg-configuration.json file in the project's directory.

    Add the fmt package as a dependency:

    vcpkg add port fmt

    Your vcpkg.json should now contain:

    {
    "dependencies": [
        "fmt"
    ]
}

    This is your manifest file. vcpkg reads the manifest file to learn what dependencies to install and integrates with MSBuild to provide the dependencies required by your project.

    The generated vcpkg-configuration.json file introduces a baseline that places minimum version constraints on the project's dependencies. Modifying this file is beyond the scope of this tutorial. While not applicable in this tutorial, it's a good practice to keep the vcpkg-configuration.json file under source control to ensure version consistency across different development environments.

3 - Set up the project files

  1. Modify the helloworld.cpp file.

    Replace the content of helloworld.cpp with the following code:

    #include <fmt/core.h>

int main()
{
    fmt::print("Hello World!\n");
    return 0;
}

    This source file includes the <fmt/core.h> header which is part of the fmt library. The main() function calls fmt::print() to output the "Hello World!" message to the console.

    Note

    The code editor may underline the lines referencing fmt files and symbols as errors. You need to build your project once for vcpkg to install the dependencies and make auto-completion tools evaluate the code correctly.

4 - Enable manifest mode

  1. Navigate to your Project Properties page.

    Using the menu navigation at the top, choose Project > Properties. A new window will open.

  2. Navigate to Configuration Properties > vcpkg, and set Use vcpkg Manifest to Yes.

    Enable manifest mode in project properties

    Other settings, such as triplets, are filled in with default values vcpkg detects from your project and will be useful when configuring your project.

5 - Build and run the project

  1. Build the project.

    Press Ctrl+Shift+B to build the project in Visual Studio and acquire the vcpkg dependencies.

    If MSBuild detects a vcpkg.json file and manifests are enabled in your project, MSBuild installs the manifest's dependencies as a pre-build step. Dependencies are installed in a vcpkg_installed directory in the project's build output directory. Any headers installed by the library can be directly used, and any libraries installed will be automatically linked.

  2. Run the application.

    Finally, run the executable:

    Running the executable

    You should see the output:

    Program output

Next steps

To learn more about vcpkg.json and vcpkg MSBuild integration, see our reference documentation: