path: root/pkg-config.1

.\" 
.\" pkg-config manual page.
.\" (C) Red Hat, Inc. based on gnome-config man page (C) Miguel de Icaza (miguel@gnu.org)
.\"
.
.TH pkg-config 1
.SH NAME
pkg-config \- Return metainformation about installed libraries
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
.B pkg-config
[\-\-modversion] [\-\-version] [\-\-help]
[\-\-atleast-pkgconfig-version=VERSION]
[\-\-print-errors] [\-\-short-errors]
[\-\-silence-errors] [\-\-errors-to-stdout] [\-\-debug]
[\-\-cflags] [\-\-libs] [\-\-libs-only-L]
[\-\-libs-only-l] [\-\-cflags-only-I]
[\-\-libs-only-other] [\-\-cflags-only-other]
[\-\-variable=VARIABLENAME]
[\-\-define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLEVALUE]
[\-\-print-variables]
[\-\-uninstalled]
[\-\-exists] [\-\-atleast-version=VERSION] [\-\-exact-version=VERSION]
[\-\-max-version=VERSION] [\-\-validate] [\-\-list\-all] [\-\-print-provides]
[\-\-print-requires] [\-\-print-requires-private] [LIBRARIES...]
.SH DESCRIPTION

The \fIpkg-config\fP program is used to retrieve information about
installed libraries in the system.  It is typically used to compile
and link against one or more libraries.  Here is a typical usage
scenario in a Makefile:
.PP
.nf
program: program.c
	cc program.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gnomeui`
.fi
.PP
.I pkg-config
retrieves information about packages from special metadata
files. These files are named after the package, and has a
.I .pc
extension.  On most systems, \fIpkg-config\fP looks in
.I /usr/lib/pkgconfig, /usr/share/pkgconfig, /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
and
.I /usr/local/share/pkgconfig
for these files.  It will additionally look in the colon-separated
(on Windows, semicolon-separated) list of directories specified by the
PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.
.PP
The package name specified on the \fIpkg-config\fP command line is
defined to be the name of the metadata file, minus the \fI.pc\fP
extension. If a library can install multiple versions simultaneously,
it must give each version its own name (for example, GTK 1.2 might
have the package name "gtk+" while GTK 2.0 has "gtk+-2.0").
.PP
In addition to specifying a package name on the command line, the full
path to a given \fI.pc\fP file may be given instead. This allows a
user to directly query a particular \fI.pc\fP file.
.\"
.SH OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
.TP
.I "--modversion"
Requests that the version information of the libraries specified on
the command line be displayed.  If \fIpkg-config\fP can find all the
libraries on the command line, each library's version string is
printed to stdout, one version per line. In this case \fIpkg-config\fP
exits successfully. If one or more libraries is unknown,
.I pkg-config
exits with a nonzero code, and the contents of stdout are undefined.
.TP
.I "--version"
Displays the version of
.I pkg-config
and terminates.
.TP
.I "--atleast-pkgconfig-version=VERSION"
Requires at least the given version of pkg-config.
.TP
.I "--help"
Displays a help message and terminates.
.TP
.I "--print-errors"
If one or more of the modules on the command line, or their
dependencies, are not found, or if an error occurs in parsing
a \fI.pc\fP file, then this option will cause errors explaining the
problem to be printed. With "predicate" options such as "--exists"
.I "pkg-config"
runs silently by default, because it's usually used
in scripts that want to control what's output. This option can be used
alone (to just print errors encountered locating modules on the 
command line) or with other options. The PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW
environment variable overrides this option.
.TP
.I "--short-errors"
Print short error messages.
.TP
.I "--silence-errors"
If one or more of the modules on the command line, or their
dependencies, are not found, or if an error occurs in parsing a
a \fI.pc\fP file, then this option will keep errors explaining the
problem from being printed. With "predicate" options such as
"--exists" \fIpkg-config\fP runs silently by default, because it's
usually used in scripts that want to control what's output. So this
option is only useful with options such as "--cflags" or
"--modversion" that print errors by default. The PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW
environment variable overrides this option.
.TP
.I "--errors-to-stdout"
If printing errors, print them to stdout rather than the default stderr
.TP
.I "--debug"
Print debugging information. This is slightly different than the
PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW environment variable, which also enable
"--print-errors".

.PP
The following options are used to compile and link programs:
.TP
.I "--cflags"
This prints pre-processor and compile flags required to compile the
packages on the command line, including flags for all their
dependencies. Flags are "compressed" so that each identical flag
appears only once. \fIpkg-config\fP exits with a nonzero code if it
can't find metadata for one or more of the packages on the command
line.
.TP
.I "--cflags-only-I"
This prints the -I part of "--cflags". That is, it defines the header
search path but doesn't specify anything else.
.TP
.I "--cflags-only-other"
This prints parts of "--cflags" not covered by "--cflags-only-I".
.TP
.I "--libs"
This option is identical to "--cflags", only it prints the link
flags. As with "--cflags", duplicate flags are merged (maintaining
proper ordering), and flags for dependencies are included in the
output.
.TP
.I "--libs-only-L"
This prints the -L/-R part of "--libs". That is, it defines the 
library search path but doesn't specify which libraries to link with.
.TP
.I "--libs-only-l"
This prints the -l part of "--libs" for the libraries specified on
the command line. Note that the union of "--libs-only-l" and
"--libs-only-L" may be smaller than "--libs", due to flags such as
-rdynamic.
.TP
.I "--libs-only-other"
This prints the parts of "--libs" not covered by "--libs-only-L" and
"--libs-only-l", such as "--pthread".
.TP
.I "--variable=VARIABLENAME"
This returns the value of a variable defined in a package's \fI.pc\fP
file. Most packages define the variable "prefix", for example, so you 
can say:
.nf
  $ pkg-config --variable=prefix glib-2.0
  /usr/
.fi
.TP
.I "--define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLEVALUE"
This sets a global value for a variable, overriding the value in any
.I .pc
files. Most packages define the variable "prefix", for example, so you
can say:
.nf
  $ pkg-config --print-errors --define-variable=prefix=/foo \e
               --variable=prefix glib-2.0
  /foo
.fi
.TP
.I "--print-variables"
Returns a list of all variables defined in the package.

.TP
.I "--uninstalled"
Normally if you request the package "foo" and the package
"foo-uninstalled" exists, \fIpkg-config\fP will prefer the 
"-uninstalled" variant. This allows compilation/linking against
uninstalled packages. If you specify the "--uninstalled" option,
.I pkg-config
will return successfully if any "-uninstalled" packages are being
used, and return failure (false) otherwise.  (The
PKG_CONFIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED environment variable keeps
.I pkg-config
from implicitly choosing "-uninstalled" packages, so if that variable
is set, they will only have been used if you pass a name like
"foo-uninstalled" on the command line explicitly.)
.TP
.I "--exists"
.TP
.I "--atleast-version=VERSION"
.TP
.I "--exact-version=VERSION"
.TP
.I "--max-version=VERSION"
These options test whether the package or list of packages on the
command line are known to \fIpkg-config\fP, and optionally whether the
version number of a package meets certain constraints.  If all packages
exist and meet the specified version constraints,
.I pkg-config
exits successfully. Otherwise it exits unsuccessfully. Only the first
VERSION comparing option will be honored. Subsequent options of this
type will be ignored.

Rather than using the version-test options, you can simply give a version
constraint after each package name, for example:
.nf
  $ pkg-config --exists 'glib-2.0 >= 1.3.4 libxml = 1.8.3'
.fi
Remember to use \-\-print-errors if you want error messages. When no
output options are supplied to \fIpkg-config\fP, \-\-exists is implied.
.TP
.I "--validate"
Checks the syntax of a package's
.I .pc
file for validity. This is the same as \-\-exists except that
dependencies are not verified. This can be useful for package developers
to test their
.I .pc
file prior to release:
.nf
  $ pkg-config --validate ./my-package.pc
.fi
.TP
.I "--msvc-syntax"
This option is available only on Windows. It causes \fIpkg-config\fP
to output -l and -L flags in the form recognized by the Microsoft
Visual C++ command-line compiler, \fIcl\fP. Specifically, instead of
.I -Lx:/some/path
it prints \fI/libpath:x/some/path\fP, and instead of \fI-lfoo\fP it
prints \fIfoo.lib\fP. Note that the --libs output consists of flags
for the linker, and should be placed on the cl command line after a
/link switch.
.TP
.I "--define-prefix"
.TQ
.I "--dont-define-prefix"
These options control whether
.I pkg-config
overrides the value of the variable
.I prefix
in each .pc file. With \-\-define-prefix,
.I pkg-config
uses the installed location of the .pc file to determine the
prefix. \-\-dont-define-prefix prevents this behavior. The default is
usually \-\-define-prefix.

When this feature is enabled and a .pc file is found in a directory named
.IR pkgconfig ,
the prefix for that package is assumed to be the grandparent of the
directory where the file was found, and the
.I prefix
variable is overridden for that file accordingly.

If the value of a variable in a .pc file begins with the original,
non-overridden, value of the
.I prefix
variable, then the overridden value of
.I prefix
is used instead. This allows the feature to work even when the variables
have been expanded in the .pc file.
.TP
.I "--prefix-variable=PREFIX"
Set the name of the variable that
.I pkg-config
overrides instead of
.I prefix
when using the \-\-define-prefix feature.
.TP
.I "--static"
Output libraries suitable for static linking.  That means including
any private libraries in the output.  This relies on proper tagging in
the .pc files, else a too large number of libraries will ordinarily be
output.
.TP
.I "--list-all"
List all modules found in the \fIpkg-config\fP path.
.TP
.I "--print-provides"
List all modules the given packages provides.
.TP
.I "--print-requires"
List all modules the given packages requires.
.TP
.I "--print-requires-private"
List all modules the given packages requires for static linking (see --static).
.\"
.SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
A colon-separated (on Windows, semicolon-separated) list of
directories to search for .pc files.  The default directory will
always be searched after searching the path; the default is
.I \%libdir/\fPpkgconfig:\fIdatadir\fP/pkgconfig where \fIlibdir\fP is
the libdir for \fIpkg-config\fP and \fIdatadir\fP is the datadir
for \fIpkg-config\fP when it was installed.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW"
If set, causes \fIpkg-config\fP to print all kinds of
debugging information and report all errors.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_TOP_BUILD_DIR"
A value to set for the magic variable \fIpc_top_builddir\fP
which may appear in \fI.pc\fP files. If the environment variable is
not set, the default value '$(top_builddir)' will be used. This
variable should refer to the top builddir of the Makefile where the 
compile/link flags reported by \fIpkg-config\fP will be used.
This only matters when compiling/linking against a package that hasn't
yet been installed.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED"
Normally if you request the package "foo" and the package
"foo-uninstalled" exists, \fIpkg-config\fP will prefer the 
"-uninstalled" variant. This allows compilation/linking against
uninstalled packages.  If this environment variable is set, it
disables said behavior.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH"
A path variable containing system directories searched by the compiler.
This is normally
.IR /usr/include .
.TP
.I "CPATH"
.TQ
.I "C_INCLUDE_PATH"
.TQ
.I "CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH"
Additional paths to append to
.IR "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH" .
These correspond to environment variables used by many compilers to
affect the header search path. These are ignored on Windows builds when
\-\-msvc-syntax is in use.
.TP
.I "INCLUDE"
Additional paths to append to
.IR "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH"
on Windows builds when \-\-msvc-syntax is in use. This corresponds to
the environment variable used by MSVC to add directories to the include
file search path.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_CFLAGS"
Don't strip system paths out of Cflags. See
.I "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_INCLUDE_PATH"
for the definition of system paths.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_LIBRARY_PATH"
A path variable containing system directories searched by the linker.
This is normally
.I /usr/lib:/lib
but is dependent on the
.I pkg-config
build and can contain other directories such as
.IR /usr/lib64 .
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_LIBS"
Don't strip system paths out of Libs. See
.I "PKG_CONFIG_SYSTEM_LIBRARY_PATH"
for the definition of system paths.
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR"
Modify -I and -L to use the directories located in target sysroot.
this option is useful when cross-compiling packages that use pkg-config
to determine CFLAGS and LDFLAGS. -I and -L are modified to point to 
the new system root. this means that a -I/usr/include/libfoo will
become -I/var/target/usr/include/libfoo with a PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR
equal to /var/target (same rule apply to -L)
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR"
Replaces the default
.I pkg-config
search directory, usually
.IR /usr/lib/pkgconfig : /usr/share/pkgconfig .
.TP
.I "PKG_CONFIG_$PACKAGE_$VARIABLE"
Overrides the variable VARIABLE in the package PACKAGE. The environment
variable should have the package name and package variable upper cased
with non-alphanumeric characters converted to underscores. For example,
setting PKG_CONFIG_GLADEUI_2_0_CATALOGDIR will override the variable
"catalogdir" in the "gladeui-2.0" package.
.\"
.SH PKG-CONFIG DERIVED VARIABLES
.I pkg-config
sets a few metadata variables that can be used in .pc files or queried
at runtime.
.TP
.I pc_path
The default search path used by
.I pkg-config
when searching for .pc files. This can be used in a query for the
.I pkg-config
module itself itself:
.nf
  $ pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config
.fi
.TP
.I pcfiledir
The installed location of the .pc file. This can be used to query the
location of the .pc file for a particular module, but it can also be
used to make .pc files relocatable. For instance:
.nf
prefix=${pcfiledir}/../..
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include
.fi
.TP
.I pc_sysrootdir
The sysroot directory set by the user. When the sysroot directory has
not been set, this value is
.IR / .
See the
.I PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR
environment variable for more details.
.TP
.I pc_top_builddir
Location of the user's top build directory when calling
.IR pkg-config.
This is useful to dynamically set paths in uninstalled .pc files. See
the
.I PKG_CONFIG_TOP_BUILD_DIR
environment variable for more details.
.\"
.SH WINDOWS SPECIALITIES
The
.I pkg-config
default search path is ignored on Windows. Instead, the search path is
constructed by using the installed directory of
.I pkg-config
and then appending
.I lib\epkgconfig
and
.IR share\epkgconfig .
This can be augmented or replaced using the standard environment
variables described above.
.\"
.SH AUTOCONF MACROS
.TP
.I "PKG_CHECK_MODULES(VARIABLE-PREFIX, MODULES [,ACTION-IF-FOUND [,ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND]])"

The macro PKG_CHECK_MODULES can be used in \fIconfigure.ac\fP to 
check whether modules exist. A typical usage would be:
.nf
 PKG_CHECK_MODULES([MYSTUFF], [gtk+-2.0 >= 1.3.5 libxml = 1.8.4])
.fi

This would result in MYSTUFF_LIBS and MYSTUFF_CFLAGS substitution
variables, set to the libs and cflags for the given module list. 
If a module is missing or has the wrong version, by default configure
will abort with a message. To replace the default action, 
specify an \%ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND. \%PKG_CHECK_MODULES will not print any
error messages if you specify your own ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND.
However, it will set the variable MYSTUFF_PKG_ERRORS, which you can 
use to display what went wrong.

Note that if there is a possibility the first call to
PKG_CHECK_MODULES might not happen, you should be sure to include an
explicit call to PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG in your configure.ac.

Also note that repeated usage of VARIABLE-PREFIX is not recommended.
After the first successful usage, subsequent calls with the same
VARIABLE-PREFIX will simply use the _LIBS and _CFLAGS variables set from
the previous usage without calling \fIpkg-config\fP again.
.\"
.TP
.I "PKG_PREREQ(MIN-VERSION)"
Checks that the version of the pkg-config autoconf macros in use is at
least MIN-VERSION. This can be used to ensure a particular pkg-config
macro will be available.
.\"
.TP
.I "PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([MIN-VERSION])"

Defines the PKG_CONFIG variable to the best pkg-config available,
useful if you need pkg-config but don't want to use PKG_CHECK_MODULES.

If the first call to PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG is conditional, then it will
not work correctly in all cases. Since many of the other macros such as
PKG_CHECK_MODULES require PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG to know which pkg-config
program to run, PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG may be run for the first time from a
conditional from one of these macros. Therefore, if any of the
pkg-config macros will be used under a conditional, it's best to run
PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG before any of the other macros are used.

.TP
.I "PKG_CHECK_MODULES_STATIC(VARIABLE-PREFIX, MODULES [,ACTION-IF-FOUND [,ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND]])"
Enables static linking through --static prior to calling
PKG_CHECK_MODULES.
.TP
.I "PKG_CHECK_EXISTS(MODULES, [ACTION-IF-FOUND], [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])"

Check to see whether a particular set of modules exists.  Similar
to PKG_CHECK_MODULES(), but does not set variables or print errors.

Similar to PKG_CHECK_MODULES, make sure that the first instance of this
or PKG_CHECK_MODULES is called, or make sure to call PKG_PROG_PKGCONFIG
manually.

.TP
.I "PKG_INSTALLDIR(DIRECTORY)"

Substitutes the variable pkgconfigdir as the location where a module
should install pkg-config .pc files. By default the directory is
$libdir/pkgconfig, but the default can be changed by passing DIRECTORY.
The user can override through the --with-pkgconfigdir parameter.
.TP
.I "PKG_NOARCH_INSTALLDIR(DIRECTORY)"

Substitutes the variable noarch_pkgconfigdir as the location where a
module should install arch-independent pkg-config .pc files. By default
the directory is $datadir/pkgconfig, but the default can be changed by
passing DIRECTORY. The user can override through the
--with-noarch-pkgconfigdir parameter.
.TP
.I "PKG_CHECK_VAR(VARIABLE, MODULE, CONFIG-VARIABLE, [ACTION-IF-FOUND], [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])"

Retrieves the value of the pkg-config variable CONFIG-VARIABLE from
MODULE and stores it in VARIABLE. Note that repeated usage of VARIABLE
is not recommended as the check will be skipped if the variable is
already set.

.SH METADATA FILE SYNTAX
To add a library to the set of packages \fIpkg-config\fP knows about,
simply install a \fI.pc\fP file. You should install this file to 
.I libdir\fP/pkgconfig.
.PP
Here is an example file:
.nf
# This is a comment
prefix=/home/hp/unst   # this defines a variable
exec_prefix=${prefix}  # defining another variable in terms of the first
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include

Name: GObject                            # human-readable name
Description: Object/type system for GLib # human-readable description
Version: 1.3.1
URL: http://www.gtk.org
Requires: glib-2.0 = 1.3.1
Conflicts: foobar <= 4.5
Libs: -L${libdir} -lgobject-1.3
Libs.private: -lm
Cflags: -I${includedir}/glib-2.0 -I${libdir}/glib/include 
.fi
.PP
You would normally generate the file using configure, so that the
prefix, etc. are set to the proper values.  The GNU Autoconf manual
recommends generating files like .pc files at build time rather than
configure time, so when you build the .pc file is a matter of taste
and preference.
.PP
Files have two kinds of line: keyword lines start with a keyword plus
a colon, and variable definitions start with an alphanumeric string
plus an equals sign. Keywords are defined in advance and have special
meaning to \fIpkg-config\fP; variables do not, you can have any
variables that you wish (however, users may expect to retrieve the
usual directory name variables).
.PP
Note that variable references are written "${foo}"; you can escape
literal "${" as "$${".
.TP
.I "Name:"
This field should be a human-readable name for the package. Note that
it is not the name passed as an argument to \fIpkg-config\fP.
.TP
.I "Description:"
This should be a brief description of the package
.TP
.I "URL:"
An URL where people can get more information about and download the package
.TP
.I "Version:"
This should be the most-specific-possible package version string.
.TP
.I "Requires:"
This is a comma-separated list of packages that are required by your
package. Flags from dependent packages will be merged in to the flags
reported for your package. Optionally, you can specify the version 
of the required package (using the operators =, <, >, >=, <=);
specifying a version allows \fIpkg-config\fP to perform extra sanity
checks. You may only mention the same package one time on the 
.I "Requires:"
line. If the version of a package is unspecified, any version will
be used with no checking.
.TP
.I Requires.private:
A list of packages required by this package. The difference from
.I Requires
is that the packages listed under
.I Requires.private
are not taken into account when a flag list is computed for
dynamically linked executable (i.e., when \-\-static was not
specified).  In the situation where each .pc file corresponds to a
library,
.I Requires.private
shall be used exclusively to specify the dependencies between the
libraries.
.TP
.I "Conflicts:"
This optional line allows \fIpkg-config\fP to perform additional
sanity checks, primarily to detect broken user installations.  The
syntax is the same as
.I "Requires:"
except that
you can list the same package more than once here, for example 
"foobar = 1.2.3, foobar = 1.2.5, foobar >= 1.3", if you have reason to
do so. If a version isn't specified, then your package conflicts with
all versions of the mentioned package. 
If a user tries to use your package and a conflicting package at the
same time, then \fIpkg-config\fP will complain.
.TP
.I "Libs:"
This line should give the link flags specific to your package. 
Don't add any flags for required packages; \fIpkg-config\fP will 
add those automatically.
.TP
.I "Libs.private:"
This line should list any private libraries in use.  Private libraries
are libraries which are not exposed through your library, but are
needed in the case of static linking. This differs from
.I Requires.private
in that it references libraries that do not have package files
installed.
.TP
.I "Cflags:"
This line should list the compile flags specific to your package. 
Don't add any flags for required packages; \fIpkg-config\fP will 
add those automatically.
.\"
.SH AUTHOR

.I pkg-config
was written by James Henstridge, rewritten by Martijn van Beers, and
rewritten again by Havoc Pennington. Tim Janik, Owen Taylor, and Raja
Harinath submitted suggestions and some code.
.I gnome-config
was written by Miguel de Icaza, Raja Harinath and various hackers in
the GNOME team.  It was inspired by Owen Taylor's \fIgtk-config\fP
program.
.\"
.SH BUGS

\fIpkg-config\fP does not handle mixing of parameters with and without
= well.  Stick with one.

Bugs can be reported at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/ under the
.I pkg-config
component.