[question] Hooks and how are they working

[maitrey]

What is your question?

Dear Conan Folks,

I am again in need of an advice:

• https://docs.conan.io/2/reference/extensions/hooks.html#official-hooks
  I use conan-2.10.2 , Windows and Python-3.12.4.
  For all my packages, I use conan build + conan export-pkg.

There is a seperate stage in Jenkins that is called after conan build + conan export-pkg.
This stages generates some documentation, is it possible to write a post package hook to add this file to the package?

Thanks!
Br,
Maitrey

Have you read the CONTRIBUTING guide?

• I've read the CONTRIBUTING guide

[memsharded]

Hi @maitrey

Thanks for your question.

Yes, you can write a post_package hook that generates files and puts them inside the package.

It might also be possible to put it inside "metadata" files instead. Maybe for docs is not the best if you want it always downloaded, but the concept is similar, you can use a hook to save the metadata file see https://docs.conan.io/2/devops/metadata.html#creating-metadata-with-hooks

[maitrey]

So the Jenkins stage runs after conan build + conan export-pkg , would it possible to still upload some generated pdf's ? Doesnot this then violate that package shall be immutable?

[memsharded]

The post_package() hook works after the package() method, but before the conanmanifest.txt with the contents of the package and the package-revision is computed. Whatever the post_package() does to the package becomes part of the package before it is "frozen", so packages can still be immutable.

[memsharded]

Regarding the documentation use case, if the files are heavy consider the following:

• Metadata files are not downloaded everytime a package is conan install installed.
• They are only downloaded when explicitly requested by users with conan download ... --metadata=<pattern>

This can save transfer, time and cost if the files are heavy and are not needed everytime. When a developer wants to read them, they can do the conan download --metadata to recover them.

[maitrey]

Thank You for your answer, I was able to understand the feature bit better.