vcpkg Custom Registry

Custom vcpkg ports, triplets, and installation scripts for Windscribe.

Ports

Overrides and additions to the official vcpkg registry.

Versioning

When updating a port's version:

1. Update ports/<name>/vcpkg.json with the new version (and reset or increment port-version)
2. Update versions/baseline.json to reflect the new baseline version
3. Update versions/<first-letter>-/<portname>.json with a new entry including the git-tree hash
4. Update tools/vcpkg/vcpkg-configuration.json in the Windscribe desktop app repo to reflect the new baseline version
5. Update vcpkg-configuration.json in the Windscribe wsnet repo to reflect the new baseline version

The git-tree hash is the SHA of the ports/<name>/ directory tree object in git:

git rev-parse HEAD:ports/<name>

Increment port-version (without changing version) when the port behavior changes but the upstream version does not (e.g., patch changes, portfile fixes).

Triplets

Custom triplets in the triplets/ directory. All build release-only to reduce build times.

Includes triplets for: iOS, tvOS (device + simulator), macOS universal (arm64+x86_64), Linux and Windows static.

All triplet names are prefixed with ws- (e.g. ws-arm64-osx, ws-x64-linux) to avoid shadowing vcpkg's built-in triplets.

How triplets are distributed

The installation scripts (vcpkg_install.sh / vcpkg_install.bat) automatically copy all .cmake files from triplets/ into <VCPKG_PATH>/triplets/ every time they run. No manual copying or VCPKG_OVERLAY_TRIPLETS configuration is needed.

After adding or updating a triplet

1. Commit and push the changes to this repository.
2. Re-run the installation script, it will copy the updated triplets to <VCPKG_PATH>/triplets/ automatically:

# Linux / macOS
./install-vcpkg/vcpkg_install.sh <VCPKG_PATH>

# Windows
install-vcpkg\vcpkg_install.bat <VCPKG_PATH>

Installation Scripts

Scripts in install-vcpkg/ install a pinned version of vcpkg. They skip reinstallation if the correct commit is already present.

Quick start

Clone the registry and run locally:

git clone https://github.com/Windscribe/ws-vcpkg-registry.git
# Linux / macOS
./ws-vcpkg-registry/install-vcpkg/vcpkg_install.sh <VCPKG_PATH>
# Windows
ws-vcpkg-registry\install-vcpkg\vcpkg_install.bat <VCPKG_PATH>

After cloning, the following patches from install-vcpkg/patches/ are automatically applied to vcpkg:

• vcpkg_configure_cmake.patch — passes correct CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=tvOS when building for appletvos/appletvsimulator sysroot
• ios_toolchain.patch — extends the iOS toolchain to set CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=tvOS for tvOS targets instead of iOS

Updating the pinned vcpkg version

The pinned commit hash is stored in install-vcpkg/vcpkg_commit.txt. To update vcpkg to a newer version:

1. Pick a commit from microsoft/vcpkg (e.g. the latest main):

git ls-remote https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg refs/heads/master

2. Replace the hash in install-vcpkg/vcpkg_commit.txt with the new commit SHA.

3. Verify the patches still apply cleanly. The two patches in install-vcpkg/patches/ are applied on top of the vcpkg source after cloning. If vcpkg changed the patched files, the patches may need to be rebased:

# Clone the new vcpkg commit manually and test
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg.git /tmp/vcpkg-test
cd /tmp/vcpkg-test
git checkout <NEW_COMMIT>
git apply /path/to/ws-vcpkg-registry/install-vcpkg/patches/vcpkg_configure_cmake.patch
git apply /path/to/ws-vcpkg-registry/install-vcpkg/patches/ios_toolchain.patch

4. If a patch fails, update it to match the new vcpkg source, then commit both the new hash and the updated patch together.

5. Commit and push the changes. CI and local developers will automatically get the new vcpkg version the next time they run the installation script — the script detects the commit mismatch, removes the old installation, and reinstalls from scratch.