Conan_user_home Verified Jun 2026

Conan, the decentralized C/C++ package manager, relies heavily on a local cache directory known as the Conan home ( CONAN_HOME ). However, in certain constrained or legacy environments, the conan_user_home environment variable provides a legacy fallback mechanism to determine the user's home directory when the standard CONAN_HOME is not explicitly defined. This paper clarifies the role, precedence, and proper application of conan_user_home , distinguishing it from CONAN_HOME and native operating system home variables. We provide technical guidelines for developers and CI/CD engineers to avoid configuration pitfalls and ensure reproducible builds.

Conan 1.x and early 2.x releases introduced several environment variables to customize runtime behavior. Among them, conan_user_home was designed as an override for the underlying system’s concept of the user home directory (e.g., $HOME on Linux/macOS, %USERPROFILE% on Windows). The variable allows users to redirect Conan’s default cache location without modifying the broader system’s home path.

| Variable set | Effect on Conan cache location | |--------------|--------------------------------| | CONAN_HOME=/a | /a | | CONAN_HOME not set, conan_user_home=/b | /b/.conan | | Neither set | $HOME/.conan | | Both set | CONAN_HOME takes precedence | conan_user_home

It must be an absolute path or a # path beginning with "~" (if the environment var CONAN_USER_HOME is specified, this directory, e... Conan Docs Environment variables — conan 1.6.1 documentation CONAN_USER_HOME. ... Allows defining a custom conan cache directory. Can be useful for concurrent builds under different users in ... Conan Docs conan.conf — conan 1.5.2 documentation If you want to change the default “conan home” (directory where conan. conf file is) you can adjust the environment variable CONAN... Conan Docs Google Googlebot - Web Crawler SEO - Paradigm Feb 28, 2021 —

The conan_user_home variable provides a legacy mechanism to override the base home directory used by Conan for its cache. While largely superseded by CONAN_HOME , understanding its behavior ensures correct operation in mixed-version environments and legacy CI pipelines. Developers should migrate to CONAN_HOME for clarity and future compatibility. We provide technical guidelines for developers and CI/CD

By default, Conan creates a User Home directory in the user's home directory when you run the conan env default or conan profile new commands. However, you can also specify a custom User Home directory using the CONAN_USER_HOME environment variable. To configure the User Home directory, follow these steps:

conan profile new my-profile

In the world of C and C++ build systems, there are several options available for managing dependencies and building large-scale projects. One of the most popular choices is Conan, a package manager developed by Datasome. Conan provides a wide range of features, including dependency management, caching, and remote repositories. In this article, we will explore the concept of Conan User Home, a crucial aspect of the Conan package manager.

mkdir -p $CONAN_USER_HOME