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This section will cover installing Conan and building a package for your C/C++ project. This is a quickstart if you are new
to Conan. If you already are using Conan and understand how to build your own packages, move on to the [next section](#adding-the-gitlab-package-registry-as-a-conan-remote).
When developing with C++ and Conan, you have a wide range of options for compilers. This tutorial walks through using the cmake
compiler. In your terminal, run the command
```shell
cmake --version
```
You should see the cmake version printed in the output. If you see something else, you may have to install cmake.
On a Mac, you can use [homebrew](https://brew.sh/) to install cmake by running `brew install cmake`. Otherwise, follow
instructions at [cmake.org](https://cmake.org/install/) for your operating system.
### Creating a project
Understanding what is needed to create a valid and compilable C++ project is out of the scope of this guide, but if you are new to C++ and want to try out the GitLab
package registry, Conan.io has a great [hello world starter project](https://github.com/conan-io/hello) that you can clone to get started.
Clone the repo and it can be used for the rest of the tutorial if you don't have your own C++ project.
### Building a package
In your terminal, navigate to the root folder of your project. Generate a new recipe by running `conan new` and providing it with a
Next, you will create a package for that recipe by running `conan create` providing the Conan user and channel:
```shell
conan create . my-org+my-group+my-project/beta
```
NOTE: **Note**
Current [naming restrictions](#package-recipe-naming-convention) require you to name the `user` value as the `+` separated path of your project on GitLab.
The example above would create a package belonging to this project: `https://gitlab.com/my-org/my-group/my-project` with a channel of `beta`.
You are now ready to upload your package to the GitLab registry. To get started, first you will need to set GitLab as a remote, then you will need to add a Conan user for that remote to authenticate your requests.
You will need a personal access token or deploy token.
For repository authentication:
- You can generate a [personal access token](../../../user/profile/personal_access_tokens.md) with the scope set to `api`.
- You can generate a [deploy token](./../../project/deploy_tokens/index.md) with the scope set to `read_package_registry`, `write_package_registry`, or both.
Once you have a personal access token and have [set your Conan remote](#adding-the-gitlab-package-registry-as-a-conan-remote), you can associate the token with the remote so you do not have to explicitly add them to each Conan command you run:
If you named your remote something other than `gitlab`, your remote name should be used in this command instead of `gitlab`.
From now on, when you run commands using `--remote=gitlab`, your username and password will automatically be included in the requests.
Note: **Note**
The personal access token is not stored locally at any moment. Conan uses JWT, so when you run this command, Conan will request an expirable token from GitLab using your token. The JWT does expire on a regular basis, so you will need to re-enter your personal access token when that happens.
Alternatively, you could explicitly include your credentials in any given command.
### Setting a default remote to your project (optional)
If you'd like Conan to always use GitLab as the registry for your package, you can tell Conan to always reference the GitLab remote for a given package recipe:
The package recipe does include the version, so setting the default remote for `Hello/0.1@user/channel` will not work for `Hello/0.2@user/channel`.
This functionality is best suited for when you want to consume or install packages from the GitLab registry without having to specify a remote.
The rest of the example commands in this documentation assume that you have added a Conan user with your credentials to the `gitlab` remote and will not include the explicit credentials or remote option, but be aware that any of the commands could be run without having added a user or default remote:
First you need to [create your Conan package locally](https://docs.conan.io/en/latest/creating_packages/getting_started.html). In order to work with the GitLab Package Registry, a specific [naming convention](#package-recipe-naming-convention) must be followed.
Ensure you have a project created on GitLab and that the personal access token you are using has the correct permissions for write access to the container registry by selecting the `api` [scope](../../../user/profile/personal_access_tokens.md#limiting-scopes-of-a-personal-access-token).
You can upload your package to the GitLab Package Registry using the `conan upload` command:
A future iteration will extend support to [project and group level](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/11679) remotes which will allow for more flexible naming conventions.
