PKG_CONFIG_PATH

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

On Sat, 2003-10-11 at 04:55, Bill Spitzak wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> I am working on cairo (http://cairographics.org) and Carl Worth there thought 
> this may be the right place to send a bug with pkg-config and/or autoconf 
> tools.
> 
> I have had some problems compiling their source with the --prefix option to 
> ./configure. It is rather easy to work around the problem but I also suspect 
> the problem is a bug that is easy to fix.
> 
> After running ./configure --prefix=<prefix>, Cairo installs it's libraries in 
> <prefix>/lib and makes a subdirectory called <prefix>/lib/pkgconfig where it 
> puts ".pc" files.
> 
> Cairo is divided into several libraries, each depending on the previous one. 
> ./configure of the next library attempts to check for the proper installation 
> of the previous one with PKG_CHECK_MODULES. However this fails as it does not 
> look in the directory <prefix>/lib/pkgconfig. Fortunately the error message 
> gives me the hint that PKG_CONFIG_PATH must be set, and setting this to that 
> directory fixes this.
> 
> But it does seem to me that there is a bug somewhere here. It seems autotools 
> is not passing a switch that it should to PKG_CHECK_MODULES when --prefix has 
> been given.

Maybe if you explain what you are expecting to happen? If you set
PKG_CONFIG_PATH in your environment then pkg-config will add that
directory the list of places it searches for .pc files for other
packages. However it will have no affect on your current package,
leacing you (correctly) in complete control of how to configure the
thing you are building.

So, again, what effect are you trying to achieve here?

Cheers,
Malcolm