Re: /usr/local [was: CPPFLAGS prob]

[Dan Kegel]

Russell Shaw wrote:
> > One caveat, though: the manpage says
> >  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 lib-dir/pkgconfig where libdir is the 
> >    libdir where pkg-config  was installed.
>
> > What happens if you don't have the library in question installed
> > in PKG_CONFIG_PATH?  pkg-config will silently search /usr/lib/pkgconfig,
> > and possibly grab the wrong version of the library.
> > If you're 
> > unlucky, the library will link, but the resulting program won't run.
> > One more little reason, perhaps, to have a separate copy of pkg-config
> > per installed userland.
>
> configure.ac checks the library via pkg-config, so regardless of what
> library gets detected, if the autoconf check accepts the library version,
> the resulting build should work. 
> ...
> If autoconf doesn't complain, the result should work. It is up to the
> user to make sure the right <package>.pc file is accessed by pkg-config.

All I'm suggesting is that, when putting together a set of compilers
and userspace libraries for users, it will make their lives easier
if a copy of pkg-config is included with the compilers, so they
don't have to specify PKG_CONFIG_PATH.
Or, if you think it's better for your users to stop whining and
figure everything out for themselves, you can just let them use
the system pkg-config, even though it might silently find the
wrong package.

- Dan

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