Use Conan package manager to copy files to project - conan

Question

I use Conan to manage the dependencies within my (c++) project.
Now I need some relatively large files in the project, which should not be checked in to GIT. I have these files on a http server and want to download them via a Conan recipe and make them available within my project (the files are needed by the finished binary and have nothing to do with the build process itself).
But I can't get conan to copy the files to the right place, here is my attempt:
from conan's import ConanFile, tools
class MyPackage(ConanFile):
name = "package"
version = "11.28"
author = "Whatever"
keep_imports = True
exports = "*"
def source(self):
tools.get("http://just/a/file.zip")
def imports(self):
self.copy("*", dst="content")
def package(self):
self.copy("*")
def package_id(self):
self.info.header_only()
For example, if my project is located under C:\dev\project and the files A.dat, B/C.dat are located in the "file.zip", I would like to have them under c:\dev\project\ \A.dat or c:\dev\project\ \B\C.dat
The problem is that when I run the recipe, the files are under <CONAN_HOME>\package\11.28\ (...) \package\A.dat or
<CONAN_HOME>\package\11.28\ (...) \package\B\C.dat (Additionally also under <CONAN_HOME>\package\11.28\ ... \source, but that is not important)
and not under c:\dev\project...

Answer 1

You are calling
conan create .
when you run the recipe I suppose. Actually you can't modify you local folder running conan create, but there is one exception to this rule:
if you define a
set_version(self):
self.version = "11.28"
# do whatever you want in your local folder
# e.g. tools.get("http://just/a/file.zip")
# and unpack your files into A.dat and B/C.dat
inside your recipe. All you do inside this function is executed within your current working directory, so you could download your zipfile here and copy the files in it in their locations.
Additionally, you have to pick these files with the exports_sources attribute if you want them to become part of your final package:
exports_sources = "A.dat","B/C.dat"
This is a hack and should be avoided, however.
Try instead to package your files "A.dat" and "C.dat" in a own package say MyDats/1.0, using the following recipe:
class MyPackage(ConanFile):
name = "MyDats"
version = "1.0"
def source(self):
tools.get("http://just/a/file.zip")
# unpack files into A.dat and C.dat herein..
def package(self):
self.copy("*", dest = "include", keep_path = False)
def package_id(self):
self.info.header_only()
By the way: you don't need to specify exports = "*" normally, the only things that should be exported are files that are necessary to run the recipe itself (not source code or your files A.dat, C.dat).
When you call
conan create .
on this it will package your files and install them locally in your cache.
Then place a conanfile.txt in your folder C:\dev\project\import\ of your local project containing:
[requires]
MyDats/1.0
[imports]
include, A.dat -> ..\
include, C.dat -> ..\B
You can obviously put your conanfile.txt in another location than project\import, the main point is to non have two recipes in the same location.
If these file are needed in your finished binary, you should include them into your package of your project however, which is what you did already inadvertently as far as I understood.