Suggestion: pkg-config supplies a pkg-config.pc file

[Daniel Macks]

With the addition of the *.private fields, we now have .pc files that
can be silently mis-parsed by older pkg-config programs. Is there a
way for a .pc to specify "only compatible with certain pkg-config
versions"?

Problem: unless foo knows that libbar has a libbar.pc that uses these
new fields, it might not use a new enough pkg-config version. Result:
a deficient --libs output, potential compile failures, a confusing
round of debugging, and mis-directed blame at foo's developers.

One solution would be for pkg-config to supply a pkg-config.pc file,
enabling every .pc to handle its own pkg-config version compatibility
requirements. For example, libbar.pc would list:
  Requires: pkg-config >= 0.18

dan

-- 
Daniel Macks
dmacks at netspace.org
http://www.netspace.org/~dmacks