Install drogon with Homebrew, apk, apt, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• _drogon_ctl
• async_stream
• benchmark
• client
• cors
• dg_ctl
• drogon_ctl
• file_upload
• helloworld
• jsonstore
• login_session
• redis_chat
• redis_simple
• websocket_client
• websocket_server

Project history

The public drogonframework/drogon repository was created in April 2018. The official overview presents Drogon as a C++17/20-based framework for building web application server programs, with its name borrowed from a dragon in Game of Thrones.

Drogon grew around a performance-oriented, asynchronous C++ server model. Its README emphasizes non-blocking I/O using epoll and kqueue, a fully asynchronous programming style, HTTP client and server support, templates, controllers, filters, WebSocket, JSON responses, uploads, compression, pipelining, database access, Redis access, plugins, AOP joinpoints, and C++ coroutine support.

The project also includes the trantor networking library as a built-in dependency in the installation docs, making the framework feel closer to a self-contained C++ web stack than a thin wrapper around an external server. The drogon_ctl command became part of the package identity because it generates controllers, views, and scaffolding that would otherwise be repetitive in C++.

Adoption history

Drogon's adoption is visible through its packaging and community surfaces: Homebrew packages the stable release, the README advertises Conan Center, Docker images, Telegram and Discord communities, and official docs cover Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, and Windows-style installation paths.

It also became a familiar name among C++ web-framework benchmark watchers because the README points users to TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks for high-concurrency performance comparisons. That benchmark visibility matters for C++ developers evaluating whether an installable framework can compete with leaner HTTP stacks.

How it is used

A minimal Drogon app can listen, set logging, configure thread count, optionally daemonize, and run from main. The README also shows loading config.json via app().loadConfigFile and using drogon_ctl to generate controllers, while docs describe dependencies such as jsoncpp, libuuid, zlib, OpenSSL, c-ares, brotli, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, sqlite3, hiredis, gtest, and yaml-cpp.

Why package nerds care

Drogon is package-nerd catnip because it makes a usually bespoke C++ web-server stack installable as a framework plus CLI. A package install brings headers, libraries, sample executables, drogon_ctl, optional database and compression integrations, and a config-file culture familiar to web developers but less common in high-performance C++ packages.

Its cross-platform story is also unusually broad for a C++ web framework: the README lists Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, HaikuOS, and Windows, while Homebrew bottles current builds for macOS and Linux architectures. That makes it useful both as an application framework and as a packaging test case for C++ dependency edges.

Timeline

• 2018: Public drogonframework/drogon repository created.
• 2019: v1.0.0-era tags establish the first stable release line.
• 2020: v1.1.0 and later 1.x releases expand the stable release train.
• 2026: Homebrew packages Drogon 1.9.13 as a current stable release.

Related projects

• Trantor is Drogon's built-in non-blocking I/O network library dependency.
• drogon_ctl is the companion CLI used to create controllers and generate view code.
• Conan Center and Docker are official distribution-adjacent surfaces advertised by the repository.
• TechEmpower Framework Benchmarks are referenced by the official README as a performance comparison surface.

Sources

• https://github.com/drogonframework/drogon
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/drogonframework/drogon/master/README.md
• https://drogonframework.github.io/drogon-docs/
• https://drogonframework.github.io/drogon-docs/ENG/ENG-01-Overview.md
• https://drogonframework.github.io/drogon-docs/ENG/ENG-02-Installation.md
• https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/drogon
• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/drogon.json