Re: pkg-config wisdom

[William Pursell]

Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    > pkg-config is broken because it checks for the existance of
>    > libraries, and not for the features that are required for the
>    > program to run.
> 
>    It does not even check for the existence of libraries.
>    It checks for the existence of a .pc file and assumes
>    that the user (or administrator) has supplied the correct
>    information.
> 
> Sighs, which is the exact same thing.
> 

No, it is not the same thing.  The user can construct
foo.pc to add -lbar to the build when the
package requests libfoo.  The user has more
control over certain aspects of the build,
but less safety because no checks are
done during configure time to ensure
that libbar even exists, unless the
maintainer takes extra steps to do so
beyond invoking PKG_CHECK_MODULES.  There
is an extra level of indirection available
to the user at configure time.

-- 
William Pursell