Managing third-party libraries in C++

Managing third-party libraries is a critical aspect of C++ development. While there is no standardized package manager for C++, various methods and tools have been adopted to streamline this process, each with its own set of practices and supported platforms.

Installing libraries with OS package managers

Many developers rely on the operating system’s package manager to install third-party libraries. On Ubuntu and other Debian-based systems, apt is commonly used:

sudo apt install libboost-all-dev

For Red Hat-based systems, yum or its successor dnf is the go-to option:

sudo yum install boost-devel

On macOS, Homebrew is a popular choice for managing packages:

brew install boost

Windows users often turn to Chocolatey or vcpkg (the latter also functions as a general C++ library manager beyond just Windows):

choco install boost

These OS package managers are convenient for common libraries but might not always offer...