Source code dependency manager for C++

Question

There are already some questions about dependency managers here, but it seems to me that they are mostly about build systems, while I am looking for something targeted purely at making dependency tracking and resolution simpler (and I'm not necessarily interested in learning a new build system).

So, typically we have a project and some common code with another project. This common code is organized as a library, so when I want to get the latest code version for a project, I should also go get all the libraries from the source control. To do this, I need a list of dependencies. Then, to build the project I can reuse this list too.

I've looked at Maven and Ivy, but I'm not sure if they would be appropriate for C++, as they look quite heavily java-targeted (even though there might be plugins for C++, I haven't found people recommending them).

I see it as a GUI tool producing some standardized dependency list which can then be parsed by different scripts etc. It would be nice if it could integrate with source control (tag, get a tagged version with dependencies etc), but that's optional.

Would you have any suggestions? Maybe I'm just missing something, and usually it's done some other way with no need for such a tool? Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use Maven in relationship with C++ in two ways. First you can use it for dependency management of components between each other. Second you can use Maven-nar-plugin for creating shared libraries and unit tests in relationship with boost library (my experience). In the end you can create RPM's (maven-rpm-plugin) out of it to have adequate installation medium. Furthermore i have created the installation for CI environment via Maven (RPM's for Hudson, Nexus installation in RPM's).