Theatre

Managing Software Components with Conan Package Manager

Amar Mahmutbegovic

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37:40

EOC 2025

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Amar Mahmutbegovic

Amar Mahmutbegovic is the co-founder and Head of Engineering at Semblie, where he leads the utilization of modern C++ for firmware development. He is passionate about demonstrating the advantages of C++ to the embedded community through his blog posts and LinkedIn activity. Amar's blog post series "Modern C++ in embedded development" can be accessed on Semblie's website at https://semblie.com/modern-cpp/.

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Topics Covered

C++Agile/Processes Software Design

Theatre

Managing Software Components with Conan Package Manager

Amar Mahmutbegovic

37:40 EOC 2025

Amar Mahmutbegovic

37:40

C and C++ based firmware projects are often managed as monorepos—a single repository with all software components in one place, usually including third-party libraries to keep them in a desired state.

Conan is a package manager for C and C++ that allows us to handle dependencies through Conan recipes. Using Conan, we can download recipes and install them in the Conan cache, allowing other software components to use them. For each recipe, we can specify dependencies and their exact versions.

Conan works well with build systems such as CMake. We can build projects using Conan profiles, which allow us to specify all build options for CMake, making the build process a more seamless experience.

This talk will help embedded developers better understand the modern approach to package management using Conan. It will cover the following topics:

Conan-based project basics,
Conan cache,
Conan profiles,
Creating Conan packages.

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According to Amar, what is the main reason to adopt a package manager like Conan for embedded projects instead of source-only approaches (copy-paste, submodules, FetchContent)?

A It provides unified handling of all dependencies (sources, generators, tools, precompiled binaries), solves versioning, and enables caching and reproducible builds across machines.

B It eliminates the need for a build system such as CMake, because Conan can build projects by itself.

C It forces all projects into a single monorepo so every component is versioned together.

D It only manages source code components and cannot handle precompiled toolchains or simulators.

E It replaces version control systems like Git, making commit history unnecessary.

In Amar's demo, what is the correct role of the two Conan profiles passed to conan install (build and host)?

A The build profile describes the target MCU and the host profile describes the developer's machine (they are reversed).

B The build profile describes the build machine (where compilation runs) and the host profile describes the target platform (the device being built for).

C Both profiles are only for listing extra compiler flags; they don't specify OS or architecture settings.

D Profiles are only used in CI pipelines and are ignored on local developer machines.

E Profiles store the binary package contents for offline installs.

What do the Conan generators CMakeDeps and CMakeToolchain produce for a CMake-based embedded project, according to the talk?

A They automatically compile and upload packages to Conan Center after the build.

B They automatically launch simulators (like Renode) and run tests as part of conan install.

C CMakeDeps generates the .cmake files so CMake find_package works; CMakeToolchain generates toolchain files specifying compiler, linker and paths for cross-compilation.

D They convert CMake projects into Makefiles and Ninja build files, replacing CMake entirely.

E They embed binary packages inside the project's source tree so no cache is needed.

Which statement correctly describes how Amar packaged Renode in his Conan recipe and how he validated the package?

A The recipe copies the Renode binaries and macros into the package, registers the CMake build modules in package_info(), and the test package runs renode --version to validate the binary.

B The package() step compiles Renode from source within the recipe, producing a Linux binary during packaging.

C The test package automatically uploads the new Renode package to Conan Center as part of validation.

D package_info() must list include headers and libraries for Renode consumers to use it as a library.

E Amar used a simple conanfile.txt (not a Python conanfile) to build the Renode package and test it.

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Upvotes Newest Oldest

fboivin

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | 1 reply

Thanks for the presentation! Where are the remote packages when using Conan? Do we have to setup remote server?

amar_mahmutbegovicSpeaker

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | no reply

Thank you! The presentation doesn't demonstrate pushing the packages to a remote server. Yes, you need to set it up yourself. There is also conancenter, an official main server, where you can contribute with open source packages.

g.mat

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | 1 reply

Great presentation! Would you be able to share an example git repo used in the presentation?

amar_mahmutbegovicSpeaker

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | no reply

Thank you! Here is the GitHub repo - https://github.com/mahmutbegovic/conan_embedded_playground

datamstr

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | 1 reply

Excellent presentation!

amar_mahmutbegovicSpeaker

Score: 0 | 10 months ago | no reply

Thank you!

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