[vcpkg] User help: selecting-library-features.md (#14189)

docs/users/selecting-library-features.md

@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+# Selecting library features
+
+## Installing a library
+
+We will look at [llvm](https://llvm.org/) as an example.
+LLVM is a compiler infrasture. It supports optimizing llvm-ir and generating machine code.
+You could install it using:
+
+```powershell
+> .\vcpkg install llvm
+```
+
+On Windows, this will install the 32-bit x86 LLVM, since that's the default triplet on Windows.
+If you are building for 64-bit Windows instead, you can use the following command to change the default triplet:
+
+```powershell
+> .\vcpkg install --triplet x64-windows llvm
+```
+
+We have more documentation on triplets [here](triplets.md).
+Currently we can't choose build type `debug` or `release` using command line switches.
+
+With llvm now installed, we can execute:
+
+```powershell
+> # llc takes llvm IR and generates machine code
+> .\installed\x86-windows\bin\llc.exe --version # or x86-windows, or replace with the actual triplet
+```
+
+we see:
+
+```powershell
+  Registered Targets:
+    x86    - 32-bit X86: Pentium-Pro and above
+    x86-64 - 64-bit X86: EM64T and AMD64
+```
+
+## Installing additional features
+
+But [llvm supports many more targets](https://llvm.org/docs/GettingStarted.html#local-llvm-configuration), from ARM to SPARC to SystemZ.
+However, clearly our current installation doesn't include ARM as a target;
+thus, we need to learn how vcpkg allows us to install other LLVM targets.
+The llvm port allows this via the "target-*" features.
+
+If we do:
+
+```powershell
+.\vcpkg search llvm
+```
+
+We can see:
+
+```
+llvm                 10.0.0#6         The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure
+llvm[clang]                           Build C Language Family Front-end.
+llvm[clang-tools-extra]               Build Clang tools.
+...
+llvm[target-all]                      Build with all backends.
+llvm[target-amdgpu]                   Build with AMDGPU backend.
+llvm[target-arm]                      Build with ARM backend.
+...
+```
+
+We can install any of these targets by using the install-feature syntax:
+
+```powershell
+> .\vcpkg install llvm[target-arm] # Installs LLVM with the ARM target
+```
+
+## Opting out of default feature
+The llvm port includes a few default features that you as a user may not want: for example,
+the `clang` feature is default, which means that `vcpkg install llvm` will also build and install clang.
+If you are writing a compiler that uses LLVM as a backend,
+you're likely not interested in installing clang as well,
+and we can do that by disabling default features with the special `core` "feature":
+```powershell
+> .\vcpkg install llvm[core,default-targets] # removing the default-feature with "core" also removes all of the default targets you get
+```
+
+# Further reading
+- The [Feature Packages](specifications/feature-packages.md) specification was the initial design for features.