meson/docs/markdown/Using-wraptool.md

Using wraptool

Wraptool is a subcommand of Meson that allows you to manage your source dependencies using the WrapDB database. It gives you all things you would expect, such as installing and updating dependencies. The wrap tool works on all platforms, the only limitation is that the wrap definition works on your target platform. If you find some Wraps that don't work, please file bugs or, even better, patches.

All code examples here assume that you are running the commands in your top level source directory. Lines that start with the $ mark are commands to type.

Simple querying

The simplest operation to do is to query the list of packages available. To list them all issue the following command:

$ meson wrap list
box2d
enet
gtest
libjpeg
liblzma
libpng
libxml2
lua
ogg
sqlite
vorbis
zlib

Usually you want to search for a specific package. This can be done with the search command:

$ meson wrap search jpeg
libjpeg

To determine which versions of libjpeg are available to install, issue the info command:

$ meson wrap info libjpeg
Available versions of libjpeg:
  9a 2

The first number is the upstream release version, in this case 9a. The second number is the Wrap revision number. They don't relate to anything in particular, but larger numbers imply newer releases. You should always use the newest available release.

Installing dependencies

Installing dependencies is just as straightforward. First just create the subprojects directory at the top of your source tree and issue the install command.

$ meson wrap install libjpeg
Installed libjpeg branch 9a revision 2

Now you can issue a subproject('libjpeg') in your meson.build file to use it.

To check if your projects are up to date you can issue the status command.

$ meson wrap status
Subproject status
 libjpeg up to date. Branch 9a, revision 2.
 zlib not up to date. Have 1.2.8 2, but 1.2.8 4 is available.

In this case zlib has a newer release available. Updating it is straightforward:

$ meson wrap update zlib
Updated zlib to branch 1.2.8 revision 4

Wraptool can do other things besides these. Documentation for these can be found in the command line help, which can be accessed by meson wrap --help.

Promoting dependencies

Meson will only search for subprojects from the top level subprojects directory. If you have subprojects that themselves have subprojects, you must transfer them to the top level. This can be done by going to your source root and issuing a promotion command.

meson wrap promote projname

This will cause Meson to go through your entire project tree, find an embedded subproject and copy it to the top level.

If there are multiple embedded copies of a subproject, Meson will not try to guess which one you want. Instead it will print all the possibilities. You can then manually select which one to promote by writing it out fully.

meson wrap promote subprojects/s1/subprojects/projname

This functionality was added in Meson release 0.45.0.