# pkg-config

pkg-config is a helper tool used when compiling applications and libraries.  It helps you insert the correct compiler options on the command line so an application can use ` gcc -o test test.c `pkg-config --libs --cflags glib-2.0` ` for instance, rather than hard-coding values on where to find glib (or other libraries).  It is language-agnostic, so it can be used for defining the location of documentation tools, for instance. 

The program is free software and licensed under the [[GPL|http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html]] version 2 or any later version (at your option). 

pkg-config works on multiple platforms: Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, Mac OS X and Windows.  It does not require anything but a reasonably well working C compiler and a C library, but can use an installed glib if that is present.  (A copy of recent glib2 is shipped together with pkg-config versions since 0.27, and this is sufficient for pkg-config to compile and work properly.) 

The first implementation was written in shell, by James Henstridge.  Later, it was rewritten in C by Havoc Pennington.  It also grew an autoconf macro written by Tim Janik, later rewritten by Scott James Remnant.  The current maintainers are [[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>|mailto:tfheen@err.no]] and [[Dan Nicholson <dbn.lists@gmail.com>|mailto:dbn.lists@gmail.com]]. 

The current release of pkg-config is version 0.27 and can be found in [[/releases|http://pkgconfig.freedesktop.org/releases/]]. 

pkg-config is available from the [[git|http://git-scm.com/]] repository at git://anongit.freedesktop.org/pkg-config 

Bugs can be filed in the [[Freedesktop.org bug tracker|https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi]] 

There is a mailing list for development and user questions at [[pkg-config@lists.freedesktop.org|mailto:pkg-config@lists.freedesktop.org]] [[(Archives)|http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/pkg-config/]] [[(Subscribe)|http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-config]] 

New and veteran users alike may find [[Dan Nicholson’s Guide to pkg-config|http://people.freedesktop.org/~dbn/pkg-config-guide.html]] informative, particularly [[the FAQ section|http://people.freedesktop.org/~dbn/pkg-config-guide.html#faq]] which provides examples of where the `Requires.private` field is appropriate.