beta-v2.3.0

[ChaseSunstrom]

CForge Release beta-v2.3.0

Package Registry Integration

CForge beta-v2.3.0 introduces integration with the cforge-index package registry, bringing a seamless dependency management experience to C/C++ development.

The cforge-index is a consolidated list of popular C/C++ libraries that can be easily pulled from cforge without having to specify a git repository URL. The new index is fully backwards compatible with CMake, which means all generated CMake code from cforge will compile without the use of cforge.

New Features

Package Registry Integration

CForge now connects to the cforge-index package registry, enabling simple dependency management similar to npm, Cargo, or pip.

cforge search json              # Find JSON libraries
cforge info fmt --versions      # Show package details and available versions
cforge add fmt@11.1.4           # Add a dependency
cforge remove spdlog            # Remove a dependency
cforge update --packages        # Refresh the registry cache

Features:

• Local registry cache at ~/.cforge/registry
• Package metadata including description, license, keywords, and categories
• Automatic Git tag discovery for version resolution
• Semantic versioning with wildcard support (1.2.*, 1.*, *)

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New Commands

Command	Description
cforge search <query>	Search for packages in the registry
cforge info <package>	Show detailed package information
cforge add <package>[@version]	Add a dependency to cforge.toml
cforge remove <package>	Remove a dependency from cforge.toml
cforge update --packages	Update the package registry index
cforge lock	Manage dependency lock file

Examples:

cforge add fmt@11.1.4                 # Add specific version
cforge add spdlog --features async    # Add with features
cforge add mylib --git https://github.com/user/mylib --tag v1.0  # Direct Git

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Simplified Dependency Syntax

Declare dependencies in cforge.toml with a clean, intuitive syntax:

[dependencies]
fmt = "11.1.4"          # Exact version
spdlog = "1.15.*"       # Latest 1.15.x
nlohmann_json = "*"     # Latest version

[dependencies.spdlog]
version = "1.15.0"
features = ["async"]

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FetchContent Integration

Dependencies are now fetched via CMake FetchContent by default—no pre-cloning required.

Mode	Behavior
fetch_content = true (default)	CMake downloads dependencies during configure
fetch_content = false	Pre-clones to vendor/ directory, uses add_subdirectory()

[dependencies]
fetch_content = true    # Use CMake FetchContent (default)
directory = "vendor"    # Clone directory when fetch_content = false

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Dependency Sources

CForge now supports five dependency sources:

Source	Description
INDEX	cforge-index registry (default)
GIT	Direct Git repository
VCPKG	vcpkg package
SYSTEM	System library (pkg-config)
PROJECT	Local project path

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Files Changed

New Files:

• include/core/registry.hpp — Registry class and types
• src/core/registry.cpp — Registry implementation
• include/core/lockfile.hpp — Lock file management
• src/core/command_search.cpp — search command
• src/core/command_info.cpp — info command
• src/core/command_add.cpp — add command
• src/core/command_remove.cpp — remove command

Updated Files:

• src/core/command_update.cpp — Added --packages flag
• src/core/command_build.cpp — Index dependency resolution, FetchContent, hash fix
• src/core/workspace.cpp — CMake generation for index dependencies
• src/core/command_help.cpp — Help text for new commands
• README.md — New documentation
• cforge-web/docs/dependencies.md — Comprehensive dependency docs

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Note: All existing workflows remain compatible.

Please report issues at [github.com/ChaseSunstrom/cforge/issues](https://github.com/ChaseSunstrom/cforge/issues)

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This discussion was created from the release beta-v2.3.0.