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pkg-config(1)							 pkg-config(1)

NAME
       pkg-config - Return metainformation about installed libraries

SYNOPSIS
       pkg-config  [--modversion] [--help] [--print-errors] [--silence-errors]
       [--cflags] [--libs] [--libs-only-L]  [--libs-only-l]  [--cflags-only-I]
       [--variable=VARIABLENAME]     [--define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLE‐
       VALUE] [--print-variables] [--uninstalled]  [--exists]  [--atleast-ver‐
       sion=VERSION]	 [--exact-version=VERSION]     [--max-version=VERSION]
       [--list-all]  [LIBRARIES...]    [--print-provides]   [--print-requires]
       [--print-requires-private] [LIBRARIES...]

DESCRIPTION
       The  pkg-config 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:

       program: program.c
	    cc program.c $(pkg-config --cflags --libs gnomeui)

       pkg-config retrieves information about packages from  special  metadata
       files.  These  files  are named after the package, and has a .pc exten‐
       sion.  On most systems, pkg-config looks in and
	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.

       The package name specified on the pkg-config command line is defined to
       be the name of the metadata file, minus the .pc 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").

OPTIONS
       The following options are supported:

       --modversion
	      Requests that the version information of the libraries specified
	      on  the  command	line be displayed.  If pkg-config 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 pkg-
	      config exits successfully. If one or more libraries is  unknown,
	      pkg-config exits with a nonzero code, and the contents of stdout
	      are undefined.

       --help Displays a help message and terminates.

       --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
	      .pc file, then this option  will	cause  errors  explaining  the
	      problem	to  be	printed.  With	"predicate"  options  such  as
	      "--exists" 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.

       --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	 .pc  file,  then  this option will keep errors explaining the
	      problem from being printed. With	"predicate"  options  such  as
	      "--exists"  pkg-config  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_CON‐
	      FIG_DEBUG_SPEW environment variable overrides this option.

       --errors-to-stdout
	      If printing errors, print them to stdout rather than the default
	      stderr

       The following options are used to compile and link programs:

       --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.  pkg-config exits with a nonzero code if it
	      can't find metadata for one or more of the packages on the  com‐
	      mand line.

       --cflags-only-I
	      This  prints  the -I part of "--cflags". That is, it defines the
	      header search path but doesn't specify anything else.

       --libs This option is identical to "--cflags", only it prints the  link
	      flags. As with "--cflags", duplicate flags are merged (maintain‐
	      ing proper ordering), and flags for dependencies are included in
	      the output.

       --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.

       --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.

       --variable=VARIABLENAME
	      This returns the value of a variable defined in a package's  .pc
	      file.  Most  packages define the variable "prefix", for example,
	      so you can say:
		$ pkg-config --variable=prefix glib-2.0
		/usr/

       --define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLEVALUE
	      This sets a global value for a variable, overriding the value in
	      any files. Most packages define the variable "prefix", for exam‐
	      ple, so you can say:
		$ pkg-config --print-errors --define-variable=prefix=/foo \
			     --variable=prefix glib-2.0
		/foo

       --print-variables
	      Returns a list of all variables defined in the package.

       --uninstalled
	      Normally if you request the package "foo" and the package	 "foo-
	      uninstalled"  exists,  pkg-config will prefer the "-uninstalled"
	      variant. This  allows  compilation/linking  against  uninstalled
	      packages.	 If you specify the "--uninstalled" option, pkg-config
	      will return successfully	if  any	 "-uninstalled"	 packages  are
	      being used, and return failure (false) otherwise.	 (The PKG_CON‐
	      FIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED environment  variable  keeps  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.)

       --exists

       --atleast-version=VERSION

       --exact-version=VERSION

       --max-version=VERSION
	      These  options  test  whether the package or list of packages on
	      the command line are known to pkg-config, and optionally whether
	      the  version  number  of a package meets certain contraints.  If
	      all packages exist and meet the specified	 version  constraints,
	      pkg-config  exits	 successfully.	Otherwise  it exits unsuccess‐
	      fully.

	      Rather than using the version-test options, you can simply  give
	      a version constraint after each package name, for example:
		$ pkg-config --exists 'glib-2.0 >= 1.3.4 libxml = 1.8.3'
	      Remember to use --print-errors if you want error messages.

       --msvc-syntax
	      This  option  is available only on Windows. It causes pkg-config
	      to output -l and -L flags in the form recognized by  the	Micro‐
	      soft Visual C++ command-line compiler, cl. Specifically, instead
	      of it prints  /libpath:x/some/path,  and	instead	 of  -lfoo  it
	      prints  foo.lib.	Note  that the --libs output consists of flags
	      for the linker, and should be placed  on	the  cl	 command  line
	      after a /link switch.

       --dont-define-prefix
	      This option is available only on Windows. It prevents pkg-config
	      from automatically trying to override the value of the  variable
	      "prefix" in each .pc file.

       --prefix-variable=PREFIX
	      Also  this option is available only on Windows. It sets the name
	      of the variable that pkg-config automatically sets as  described
	      above.

       --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.

       --list-all
	      List all modules found in the pkg-config path.

       -I "--print-provides"
	      List all modules the given packages provides.

       --print-requires
	      List all modules the given packages requires.

       --print-requires-private
	      List all modules the given packages requires for static  linking
	      (see --static).

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       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
	      libdir/pkgconfig:datadir/pkgconfig where libdir  is  the	libdir
	      for pkg-config and datadir is the datadir for pkg-config when it
	      was installed.

       PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW
	      If set, causes pkg-config to print all kinds of debugging infor‐
	      mation and report all errors.

       PKG_CONFIG_TOP_BUILD_DIR
	      A	 value to set for the magic variable pc_top_builddir which may
	      appear in .pc 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  com‐
	      pile/link	 flags reported by pkg-config will be used.  This only
	      matters when compiling/linking against a package that hasn't yet
	      been installed.

       PKG_CONFIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED
	      Normally	if you request the package "foo" and the package "foo-
	      uninstalled" exists, pkg-config will prefer  the	"-uninstalled"
	      variant.	This  allows  compilation/linking  against uninstalled
	      packages.	 If this environment variable is set, it disables said
	      behavior.

       PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_CFLAGS
	      Don't strip -I/usr/include out of cflags.

       PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_LIBS
	      Don't strip -L/usr/lib out of libs

       PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR
	      Modify  -I  and -L to use the directories located in target sys‐
	      root.  this option is useful when	 crosscompiling	 package  that
	      use  pkg-config  to  determine CFLAGS anf 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/lib‐
	      foo with a PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR	 equal	to  /var/target	 (same
	      rule apply to -L)

       PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
	      Replaces	 the  default  pkg-config  search  directory,  usually
	      /usr/lib/pkgconfig

QUERYING PKG-CONFIG'S DEFAULTS
       pkg-config can be used to query itself for  the	default	 search	 path,
       version number and other information, for instance using:
	 $ pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config
       or
	 $ pkg-config --modversion pkg-config

WINDOWS SPECIALITIES
       If  a  .pc  file is found in a directory that matches the usual conven‐
       tions (i.e., ends with \lib\pkgconfig or \share\pkgconfig), the	prefix
       for  that  package  is  assumed	to be the grandparent of the directory
       where the file was found, and the 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 prefix variable, then the overridden value  of
       prefix is used instead.

AUTOCONF MACROS
       PKG_CHECK_MODULES(VARIABLE-PREFIX,  MODULES [,ACTION-IF-FOUND [,ACTION-
       IF-NOT-FOUND]])

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

	      This  would  result in MYSTUFF_LIBS and MYSTUFF_CFLAGS substitu‐
	      tion 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 spec‐
	      ify  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 config‐
	      ure.ac.

       PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([MIN-VERSION])

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

       PKG_CHECK_EXISTS(MODULES, [ACTION-IF-FOUND], [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])

	      Check to see whether a particular set of modules exists.	 Simi‐
	      lar  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_CHECK_EXISTS manually.

METADATA FILE SYNTAX
       To add a library to the set of packages pkg-config knows about,	simply
       install a .pc file. You should install this file to libdir/pkgconfig.

       Here is an example file:
       # 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

       You  would  normally  generate  the file using configure, of course, so
       that the prefix, etc. are set to the proper values.

       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	 mean‐
       ing  to	pkg-config;  variables do not, you can have any variables that
       you wish (however, users may expect to  retrieve	 the  usual  directory
       name variables).

       Note that variable references are written "${foo}"; you can escape lit‐
       eral "${" as "$${".

       Name:  This field should be a human-readable name for the package. Note
	      that it is not the name passed as an argument to pkg-config.

       Description:
	      This should be a brief description of the package

       URL:   An  URL where people can get more information about and download
	      the package

       Version:
	      This  should  be	the  most-specific-possible  package   version
	      string.

       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 pkg-config to perform
	      extra sanity checks. You may only mention the same  package  one
	      time  on	the  Requires:	line.  If  the version of a package is
	      unspecified, any version will be used with no checking.

       Requires.private:
	      A list of packages required by this package. The difference from
	      Requires	is that the packages listed under Requires.private are
	      not taken into account when a flag list is computed for  dynami‐
	      cally linked executable (i.e., when --static was not specified).
	      In the situation where each .pc file corresponds to  a  library,
	      Requires.private shall be used exclusively to specify the depen‐
	      dencies between the libraries.

       Conflicts:
	      This optional line allows pkg-config to perform additional  san‐
	      ity  checks, primarily to detect broken user installations.  The
	      syntax is the same as 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 pkg-
	      config will complain.

       Libs:  This line should give the link flags specific to	your  package.
	      Don't  add  any flags for required packages; pkg-config will add
	      those automatically.

       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 dif‐
	      fers  from Requires.private in that it references libraries that
	      do not have package files installed.

       Cflags:
	      This line should list the compile flags specific to  your	 pack‐
	      age.  Don't add any flags for required packages; pkg-config will
	      add those automatically.

AUTHOR
       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.	  gnome-config
       was  written  by	 Miguel de Icaza, Raja Harinath and various hackers in
       the GNOME team.	It was inspired by Owen Taylor's gtk-config program.

BUGS
       pkg-config does not handle mixing of  parameters	 with  and  without  =
       well.  Stick with one.

       Bugs can be reported at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/ under the pkg-con‐
       fig component.

								 pkg-config(1)
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