How to determine modular paths?

[Kevin E Martin]

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 09:20:28AM -0800, Andy Ritger wrote:
> What is the proper way for a 3rd party X driver installation tool to
> know the correct path for installation?
> 
> In this thread:
> 
>     http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/2005-December/011369.html
> 
> it was suggested to use `pkg-config --variable=moduledir xorg-server`,
> which seems reasonable to me.  The NVIDIA installation utility runs
> these commands:
> 
>     pkg-config --variable=moduledir xorg-server
>     pkg-config --variable=libdir xorg-server
> 
> to find the paths for X driver installation and X library installation 
> (like libXvMC).
> 
> However, in many modular installations, the pkg-config command does
> not work because the .pc file is not installed along with the X server,
> but rather with the devel package which many users do not have installed.

That is correct.  The .pc files are only installed with the devel or sdk
packages.  They are used at build-time, not install-time.

> Are the above pkg-config commands the correct way for 3rd party
> installation tools to determine the paths where the related files should
> be installed?

No, I don't think so.  The better way to do this (as discussed in the
thread quoted above) is to either:

 - add a command-line argument to the Xorg server to display the default
   paths (and potentially other information that could be queried), or
 - simply add it to the output of the -version (e.g., with the -verbose
   option).

These should be easy to implement, and I feel are much better solution.

Thanks,
Kevin