How to generate .pc files with Autotools

[Daniel Leidert]

Am Dienstag, den 28.08.2007, 14:16 -0300 schrieb Murilo Belluzzo:

> I'm using the AutoTools to build a lib for the first time.  After many
> days of study and work, I finally made my library compile and install
> properly with "./configure and make".
> 
> Now, I want to use pkg-config to make it easy for anyone to use my lib
> with PKG_CHECK_MODULES(). But, I get stuck on it because I couldn't
> find any tutorial or howto that teaches what I have to do to create
> the right .pc files for my lib and install them in the right place
> (even when ${prefix} is set to a path that is not the default). 

Many projects create a .pc.in file with the following content:

/------------------ mylib.pc.in ------------------------
prefix=@prefix@
exec_prefix=@exec_prefix@
libdir=@libdir@
includedir=@includedir@

Name: <my library>
Description: <library to do something>
URL: <homepage>
Version: @VERSION@
Requires: <dependencies>
Libs: <link flags>
Cflags: <compile flags>
\-------------------------------------------------------

(replace "<...>" with strings, that fit your library, "@VAR@" is
replaced by configure)

then add this file to the list of files in AC_CONFIG_FILES
(configure.ac/configure.in), so its processed by configure. I would use
configure.ac to make sure, exec and exec-prefix cannot be "NONE".

> Can anyone tell me where I can find such information?

Simply look into packages shipping .pc files.

Regards, Daniel