take dependencies from locally cloned repo

[andriy-fedechko-imprivata]

Hello,
Not sure how to better describe the problem I'd like to solve, so I'll start from describing an environment I have and then will try to describe a problem I'd like to address.

I have a few repos, where each provides some functionality (assume that each repo provides some standalone library). For simplicity, I have repo A and repo B. And these repos has next relation: Repo A uses library provided by repo B.
The way how A's dependencies are resolved right now is: I have a custom registry repository, that holds a repo's B port file. It has vcpkg.json file with the dependencies for repo B and it has portfile.cmake that instructs where from repo B can be taken, how it can be built, etc.

Then my repo A has a vcpkg-configuration.json that "points" to that custom registry, and the vcpkg.json that has a lists dependencies of A.

Now the problem.
Imagine that I have to do some changes within repo B and I'd like to test these changes within repo A. For example, let's imagine that repo B provides a library for logging, and repo A is the application that uses that library. Now I have added new functionality into logging library and I'd like to test how it works with the application provided by repo A. The way I can do that is next:

1. do changes within repo B
2. commit changes in B
3. go to custom registry repo and update B's portfile to point to new commit, basically add new version of B
4. commit these changes as well
5. now go to my repo A, update the vcpkg-configuration.json with new baseline, so that it takes new registry, where new data about B's is provided
6. now I can build A and it will have changes recently done in B.

So... I'm looking for a way to simplify that process a bit. For dev-testing.
Given that I have repo A and repo B on my system, locally, both are cloned to some local folder... is there a way to skip 2-5 from the steps above, and do something like this:

1. do changes in repo B
2. do some changes in repo A's vcpkg-configuration.json file, or somewhere else, so that it takes repo B not from custom registry but from /some/folder/within/my_os
3. test changes.

I've tried to use builtin registry within A's vcpkg-configuration.json and specifying the VCPKG_OVERLAY_PORTS to the /some/folder/within/my_os but it complains that local repo B desn't have portfile.cmake file, which is logical as this should not be a part of the B's repo.
But all it can give me is that I can copy B's vcpkg.json and portfile.cmake into folder into which VCPKG_OVERLAY_PORTS points to, and l can skip updating custom registry step. But still will be getting changes from B's repo. And I'd like to skip that step as well.

[JackBoosY]

The simply way is: directly extract repo B's package or just copy it instead of use vcpkg_from_github / vcpkg_download_distfile temporary before you updated the version.

[miss-programgamer]

What does "directly extract repo B's package" mean, and how am I expected to then consume it from library A in this theoretical?

[JackBoosY]

Use vcpkg_extract_source_archive‎ instead of vcpkg_from_github / vcpkg_download_distfile,
see: https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg/blob/master/scripts/cmake/vcpkg_extract_source_archive.cmake