allow specifying the path to the dumpbin executable when using VCPKG_APPLOCAL_DEPS

[georg-emg]

---

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
When creating a cmake toolchain under Windows, all the relevant executables can be specified using cmake variables like CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER CMAKE_RC_COMPILER CMAKE_MT etc. This allows for writing a toolchain file that can be run from a regular shell without calling vcvarsall.bat, which makes writing CI pipelines a lot easier. These toolchain files can include the vcpkg.cmake toolchain file to take advantage of the advanced vcpkg features. When trying to use the VCPKG_APPLOCAL_DEPS feature, however, the script applocal.ps1 will attempt to call dumpbin without a path. This results in an error if dumbin is not in the PATH, i.e. if vcvarsall.bat has not been called.

Proposed solution
The vcpkg.cmake toockain file could provide a cache variable VCPKG_DUMPBIN by calling find_program(VCPKG_DUMPBIN, dumpbin), and pass the result on to applocal.ps1 as a parameter. This would allow for specifying the path to dumpbin from the cmake command line, or from a toolchain file.

Describe alternatives you've considered
The two possible workarounds are:

• require vcvarsall.bat to be called before building a project that uses vcpkg. This kind of defeats the purpose of a cmake toolchain file, though, which should describe the whole build environment.
• set VCPKG_APPLOCAL_DEPS to OFF, which would be a pity.

Additional context
This is just a small change to scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake and scripts/buildsystems/msbuild/applocal.ps1 each. I have a working patch and could submit a PR if there is interest.

[Milerius]

+1 ^

[georg-emg]

Hi, I saw that there was changes in scripts/buildsystems/msbuild/applocal.ps1 to the logic that looks for dumpbin. With the new changes, I think it would be preferrable if applocal.ps1 finds dumpbin.exe in a Visual Studio installation using the same logic that is used by bootstrap-vcpkg.bat.

[bowie7070]

@georg-emg Do you still have the PR you mentioned? If so, can you provide a link to it. Thanks

[pdehne]

I used your suggestions and have added the ability to configure a custom dumpbin path to https://github.com/pdehne/vcpkg. This
works for me with Visual Studio 2026.

It specifically fixes builds on Windows with Ninja when using the CMake Toolchain files for Windows (https://github.com/MarkSchofield/WindowsToolchain).

I used the following configuration.

CMakePresets.json:

{
  "version": 2,
  "configurePresets": [
    {
      "name": "vcpkg",
      "generator": "Ninja",
      "binaryDir": "${sourceDir}/build",
      "cacheVariables": {
        "CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE": "$env{VCPKG_ROOT}/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake"
      }
    }
  ]
}

CMakeUserPresets.json:

{
  "version": 2,
  "configurePresets": [
    {
      "name": "vcpkg-msvc",
	  "inherits": "vcpkg",
      "cacheVariables": {
        "VCPKG_CHAINLOAD_TOOLCHAIN_FILE": "C:/d/WindowsToolchain/Windows.MSVC.toolchain.cmake",
		"VCPKG_DUMPBIN": "C:/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio/18/Community/VC/Tools/MSVC/14.50.35717/bin/Hostx64/x64/dumpbin.exe"
      }
    }
  ]
}

For configure and build I run:

cmake --preset=vcpkg-msvc -B build 
cmake --build build

All needed dlls are copied to the build folder as part of the build process.