I'm using Visual Studio 2017 with the vcpkg integration to build my projects.
The vcpkg/scripts/buildsystems/msbuild/vcpkg.targets file is of version #3504, 8. Aug. 2018.

Besides the well known build configurations Debug and Release, I also use other names that prefix or suffix additional words, like Test Debug or Debug CLR. In my project settings, I examine the configuraion name to automatically adjust certain project settings.

The problem with vcpkg is that the condition $(VcpkgConfiguration.StartsWith('Debug')) does match some cases, but not all. Also, creating the property $(VcpkgNormalizedConfiguration) as string and examining it later just to add a sub directory is more verbose than necessary.

I'd like to propose the following:

• Create a property $(VcpkgConfigSubdir) that is 'debug\' if the configuration contains 'Debug' (case-insensitive) and is empty in all other cases.
• Remove lot's of redundant code by inserting $(VcpkgConfigSubdir) into the strings.
• Remove the error message "Vcpkg is unable to link because we cannot decide between Release and Debug libraries." because $(VcpkgConfigSubdir) will always be defined and the test cannot fail anymore.

I have prepared a modified version of vcpkg.targets that works very well that I'd like to submit.