Feature Request: Native vcpkg Integration and vcpkg.json Dependency Parsing

[AkimioJR]

Background:

In my CGO library, I use pkg-config

/*
#cgo pkg-config: freetype2 harfbuzz harfbuzz-subset

// freetype
#include <ft2build.h>
#include FT_FREETYPE_H // <freetype/freetype.h>
#include FT_TYPE1_TABLES_H // <freetype/t1tables.h>
#include FT_TRUETYPE_IDS_H // <freetype/ttnameid.h>
#include FT_TRUETYPE_TABLES_H // <freetype/tttables.h>
#include FT_SFNT_NAMES_H // <freetype/ftsnames.h>

// harfbuzz
#define HB_EXPERIMENTAL_API
#include <hb-subset.h>
*/
import "C"

to link third-party libraries across platforms. I want to use GoReleaser to build and release my example program, but currently the process is complex and error-prone, especially for macOS (e.g., due to missing SDKs and cross-compilation issues).

Current workaround:

I have to manually install dependencies via vcpkg in the before hooks, and set up environment variables for each build target, as shown below:

before:
  hooks:
    - apt-get update
    - apt-get install -y pkg-config ca-certificates
    - git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git /vcpkg
    - /vcpkg/bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

builds:
  - id: linux-amd64
    ...
    hooks:
      pre:
        - flock /tmp/vcpkg.lock /vcpkg/vcpkg install --triplet=x64-linux-release --x-install-root=/vcpkg_installed_linux_x64
    ...
    env:
      - PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/vcpkg_installed_linux_x64/x64-linux-release/lib/pkgconfig
  - id: darwin-arm64
    ...
    hooks:
      pre:
        - flock /tmp/vcpkg.lock /vcpkg/vcpkg install --triplet=arm64-osx-release --x-install-root=/vcpkg_installed_darwin_arm64
    ...
    env:
      - PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/vcpkg_installed_darwin_arm64/arm64-osx-release/lib/pkgconfig

Problems:

• The process is complex and fragile, especially for cross-compiling to macOS.
• It requires a lot of manual configuration and scripting.
• There is no native support for parsing dependencies from a vcpkg.json

Feature Proposal:

• Add native support for vcpkg in GoReleaser.
• Allow specifying a vcpkg.json file in the config, so dependencies can be automatically installed by vcpkg.
• Allow specifying the vcpkg triplet as a parameter.
• GoReleaser should handle the vcpkg bootstrap, dependency installation, and environment setup automatically.

Example of vcpkg.json:

{
    "builtin-baseline": "7066011e27c97dbcfff739be2b69b592a41fc74a",
    "dependencies": [
        {
            "name": "freetype",
            "features": ["brotli", "bzip2", "png", "zlib"]
        },
        {
            "name": "harfbuzz",
            "features": ["freetype"]
        },
        "brotli",
        "zlib",
        "libpng",
        "bzip2"
    ]
}

And a corresponding GoReleaser config param for the triplet.

Benefit:

This would greatly simplify cross-platform CGO builds and make GoReleaser friendlier for C/C++/CGO projects that rely on vcpkg.

Here's an example of what I'd expect to see as an updated go-releaser config file

- id: linux-amd64
    main: ./cmd/assfont-go
    binary: assfonts-go
    # hooks:
    # pre:
     #    - flock /tmp/vcpkg.lock /vcpkg/vcpkg install --triplet=x64-linux-release --x-install-root=/vcpkg_installed_linux_x64
    goos:
      - linux
    goarch:
      - amd64
    vcpkg:
      - triplet=x64-linux-release
      - config=./vcpkg.json
    env:
      - CC=x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc
      - CXX=x86_64-linux-gnu-g++
      # - PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/vcpkg_installed_linux_x64/x64-linux-release/lib/pkgconfig

Thanks for considering this feature!