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pkg-config(1) pkg-config(1)
NAME
pkg-config - Return metainformation about installed libraries
SYNOPSIS
pkg-config [--modversion] [--help] [--print-errors] [--silence-errors] [--cflags] [--libs] [--libs-only-L] [--libs-only-
l] [--cflags-only-I] [--variable=VARIABLENAME] [--define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLEVALUE] [--print-variables]
[--uninstalled] [--exists] [--atleast-version=VERSION] [--exact-version=VERSION] [--max-version=VERSION] [--list-all]
[LIBRARIES...] [--print-provides] [--print-requires] [--print-requires-private] [LIBRARIES...]
DESCRIPTION
The pkg-config program is used to retrieve information about installed libraries in the system. It is typically used to
compile and link against one or more libraries. Here is a typical usage scenario in a Makefile:
program: program.c
cc program.c $(pkg-config --cflags --libs gnomeui)
pkg-config retrieves information about packages from special metadata files. These files are named after the package, and
has a .pc extension. On most systems, pkg-config looks in and
for these files. It will additionally look in the colon-separated (on Windows, semicolon-separated) list of directories
specified by the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable.
The package name specified on the pkg-config command line is defined to be the name of the metadata file, minus the .pc
extension. If a library can install multiple versions simultaneously, it must give each version its own name (for exam-
ple, GTK 1.2 might have the package name "gtk+" while GTK 2.0 has "gtk+-2.0").
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
--modversion
Requests that the version information of the libraries specified on the command line be displayed. If pkg-config
can find all the libraries on the command line, each library's version string is printed to stdout, one version
per line. In this case pkg-config exits successfully. If one or more libraries is unknown, pkg-config exits with a
nonzero code, and the contents of stdout are undefined.
--help Displays a help message and terminates.
--print-errors
If one or more of the modules on the command line, or their dependencies, are not found, or if an error occurs in
parsing a .pc file, then this option will cause errors explaining the problem to be printed. With "predicate"
options such as "--exists" pkg-config runs silently by default, because it's usually used in scripts that want to
control what's output. This option can be used alone (to just print errors encountered locating modules on the
command line) or with other options. The PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW environment variable overrides this option.
--silence-errors
If one or more of the modules on the command line, or their dependencies, are not found, or if an error occurs in
parsing a a .pc file, then this option will keep errors explaining the problem from being printed. With "predi-
cate" options such as "--exists" pkg-config runs silently by default, because it's usually used in scripts that
want to control what's output. So this option is only useful with options such as "--cflags" or "--modversion"
that print errors by default. The PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW environment variable overrides this option.
--errors-to-stdout
If printing errors, print them to stdout rather than the default stderr
The following options are used to compile and link programs:
--cflags
This prints pre-processor and compile flags required to compile the packages on the command line, including flags
for all their dependencies. Flags are "compressed" so that each identical flag appears only once. pkg-config exits
with a nonzero code if it can't find metadata for one or more of the packages on the command line.
--cflags-only-I
This prints the -I part of "--cflags". That is, it defines the header search path but doesn't specify anything
else.
--libs This option is identical to "--cflags", only it prints the link flags. As with "--cflags", duplicate flags are
merged (maintaining proper ordering), and flags for dependencies are included in the output.
--libs-only-L
This prints the -L/-R part of "--libs". That is, it defines the library search path but doesn't specify which
libraries to link with.
--libs-only-l
This prints the -l part of "--libs" for the libraries specified on the command line. Note that the union of
"--libs-only-l" and "--libs-only-L" may be smaller than "--libs", due to flags such as -rdynamic.
--variable=VARIABLENAME
This returns the value of a variable defined in a package's .pc file. Most packages define the variable "prefix",
for example, so you can say:
$ pkg-config --variable=prefix glib-2.0
/usr/
--define-variable=VARIABLENAME=VARIABLEVALUE
This sets a global value for a variable, overriding the value in any files. Most packages define the variable
"prefix", for example, so you can say:
$ pkg-config --print-errors --define-variable=prefix=/foo \
--variable=prefix glib-2.0
/foo
--print-variables
Returns a list of all variables defined in the package.
--uninstalled
Normally if you request the package "foo" and the package "foo-uninstalled" exists, pkg-config will prefer the
"-uninstalled" variant. This allows compilation/linking against uninstalled packages. If you specify the "--unin-
stalled" option, pkg-config will return successfully if any "-uninstalled" packages are being used, and return
failure (false) otherwise. (The PKG_CONFIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED environment variable keeps pkg-config from implic-
itly choosing "-uninstalled" packages, so if that variable is set, they will only have been used if you pass a
name like "foo-uninstalled" on the command line explicitly.)
--exists
--atleast-version=VERSION
--exact-version=VERSION
--max-version=VERSION
These options test whether the package or list of packages on the command line are known to pkg-config, and
optionally whether the version number of a package meets certain contraints. If all packages exist and meet the
specified version constraints, pkg-config exits successfully. Otherwise it exits unsuccessfully.
Rather than using the version-test options, you can simply give a version constraint after each package name, for
example:
$ pkg-config --exists 'glib-2.0 >= 1.3.4 libxml = 1.8.3'
Remember to use --print-errors if you want error messages.
--msvc-syntax
This option is available only on Windows. It causes pkg-config to output -l and -L flags in the form recognized by
the Microsoft Visual C++ command-line compiler, cl. Specifically, instead of it prints /libpath:x/some/path, and
instead of -lfoo it prints foo.lib. Note that the --libs output consists of flags for the linker, and should be
placed on the cl command line after a /link switch.
--dont-define-prefix
This option is available only on Windows. It prevents pkg-config from automatically trying to override the value
of the variable "prefix" in each .pc file.
--prefix-variable=PREFIX
Also this option is available only on Windows. It sets the name of the variable that pkg-config automatically sets
as described above.
--static
Output libraries suitable for static linking. That means including any private libraries in the output. This
relies on proper tagging in the .pc files, else a too large number of libraries will ordinarily be output.
--list-all
List all modules found in the pkg-config path.
-I "--print-provides"
List all modules the given packages provides.
--print-requires
List all modules the given packages requires.
--print-requires-private
List all modules the given packages requires for static linking (see --static).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
PKG_CONFIG_PATH
A colon-separated (on Windows, semicolon-separated) list of directories to search for .pc files. The default
directory will always be searched after searching the path; the default is libdir/pkgconfig:datadir/pkgconfig
where libdir is the libdir for pkg-config and datadir is the datadir for pkg-config when it was installed.
PKG_CONFIG_DEBUG_SPEW
If set, causes pkg-config to print all kinds of debugging information and report all errors.
PKG_CONFIG_TOP_BUILD_DIR
A value to set for the magic variable pc_top_builddir which may appear in .pc files. If the environment variable
is not set, the default value '$(top_builddir)' will be used. This variable should refer to the top builddir of
the Makefile where the compile/link flags reported by pkg-config will be used. This only matters when compil-
ing/linking against a package that hasn't yet been installed.
PKG_CONFIG_DISABLE_UNINSTALLED
Normally if you request the package "foo" and the package "foo-uninstalled" exists, pkg-config will prefer the
"-uninstalled" variant. This allows compilation/linking against uninstalled packages. If this environment vari-
able is set, it disables said behavior.
PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_CFLAGS
Don't strip -I/usr/include out of cflags.
PKG_CONFIG_ALLOW_SYSTEM_LIBS
Don't strip -L/usr/lib out of libs
PKG_CONFIG_SYSROOT_DIR
Modify -I and -L to use the directories located in target sysroot. this option is useful when crosscompiling
package that use pkg-config to determine CFLAGS anf LDFLAGS. -I and -L are modified to point to the new system
root. this means that a -I/usr/include/libfoo will become -I/var/target/usr/include/libfoo with a PKG_CONFIG_SYS-
ROOT_DIR equal to /var/target (same rule apply to -L)
PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR
Replaces the default pkg-config search directory, usually /usr/lib/pkgconfig
QUERYING PKG-CONFIG'S DEFAULTS
pkg-config can be used to query itself for the default search path, version number and other information, for instance
using:
$ pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config
or
$ pkg-config --modversion pkg-config
WINDOWS SPECIALITIES
If a .pc file is found in a directory that matches the usual conventions (i.e., ends with \lib\pkgconfig or \share\pkg-
config), the prefix for that package is assumed to be the grandparent of the directory where the file was found, and the
prefix variable is overridden for that file accordingly.
If the value of a variable in a .pc file begins with the original, non-overridden, value of the prefix variable, then the
overridden value of prefix is used instead.
AUTOCONF MACROS
PKG_CHECK_MODULES(VARIABLE-PREFIX, MODULES [,ACTION-IF-FOUND [,ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND]])
The macro PKG_CHECK_MODULES can be used in configure.ac to check whether modules exist. A typical usage would be:
PKG_CHECK_MODULES([MYSTUFF], [gtk+-2.0 >= 1.3.5 libxml = 1.8.4])
This would result in MYSTUFF_LIBS and MYSTUFF_CFLAGS substitution variables, set to the libs and cflags for the
given module list. If a module is missing or has the wrong version, by default configure will abort with a mes-
sage. To replace the default action, specify an ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND. PKG_CHECK_MODULES will not print any error
messages if you specify your own ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND. However, it will set the variable MYSTUFF_PKG_ERRORS, which
you can use to display what went wrong.
Note that if there is a possibility the first call to PKG_CHECK_MODULES might not happen, you should be sure to
include an explicit call to PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG in your configure.ac.
PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([MIN-VERSION])
Defines the PKG_CONFIG variable to the best pkg-config available, useful if you need pkg-config but don't want to
use PKG_CHECK_MODULES.
PKG_CHECK_EXISTS(MODULES, [ACTION-IF-FOUND], [ACTION-IF-NOT-FOUND])
Check to see whether a particular set of modules exists. Similar to PKG_CHECK_MODULES(), but does not set vari-
ables or print errors.
Similar to PKG_CHECK_MODULES, make sure that the first instance of this or PKG_CHECK_MODULES is called, or make
sure to call PKG_CHECK_EXISTS manually.
METADATA FILE SYNTAX
To add a library to the set of packages pkg-config knows about, simply install a .pc file. You should install this file
to libdir/pkgconfig.
Here is an example file:
# This is a comment
prefix=/home/hp/unst # this defines a variable
exec_prefix=${prefix} # defining another variable in terms of the first
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include
Name: GObject # human-readable name
Description: Object/type system for GLib # human-readable description
Version: 1.3.1
URL: http://www.gtk.org
Requires: glib-2.0 = 1.3.1
Conflicts: foobar <= 4.5
Libs: -L${libdir} -lgobject-1.3
Libs.private: -lm
Cflags: -I${includedir}/glib-2.0 -I${libdir}/glib/include
You would normally generate the file using configure, of course, so that the prefix, etc. are set to the proper values.
Files have two kinds of line: keyword lines start with a keyword plus a colon, and variable definitions start with an
alphanumeric string plus an equals sign. Keywords are defined in advance and have special meaning to pkg-config; vari-
ables do not, you can have any variables that you wish (however, users may expect to retrieve the usual directory name
variables).
Note that variable references are written "${foo}"; you can escape literal "${" as "$${".
Name: This field should be a human-readable name for the package. Note that it is not the name passed as an argument to
pkg-config.
Description:
This should be a brief description of the package
URL: An URL where people can get more information about and download the package
Version:
This should be the most-specific-possible package version string.
Requires:
This is a comma-separated list of packages that are required by your package. Flags from dependent packages will
be merged in to the flags reported for your package. Optionally, you can specify the version of the required pack-
age (using the operators =, <, >, >=, <=); specifying a version allows pkg-config to perform extra sanity checks.
You may only mention the same package one time on the Requires: line. If the version of a package is unspecified,
any version will be used with no checking.
Requires.private:
A list of packages required by this package. The difference from Requires is that the packages listed under
Requires.private are not taken into account when a flag list is computed for dynamically linked executable (i.e.,
when --static was not specified). In the situation where each .pc file corresponds to a library, Requires.private
shall be used exclusively to specify the dependencies between the libraries.
Conflicts:
This optional line allows pkg-config to perform additional sanity checks, primarily to detect broken user instal-
lations. The syntax is the same as Requires: except that you can list the same package more than once here, for
example "foobar = 1.2.3, foobar = 1.2.5, foobar >= 1.3", if you have reason to do so. If a version isn't speci-
fied, then your package conflicts with all versions of the mentioned package. If a user tries to use your package
and a conflicting package at the same time, then pkg-config will complain.
Libs: This line should give the link flags specific to your package. Don't add any flags for required packages; pkg-
config will add those automatically.
Libs.private:
This line should list any private libraries in use. Private libraries are libraries which are not exposed through
your library, but are needed in the case of static linking. This differs from Requires.private in that it refer-
ences libraries that do not have package files installed.
Cflags:
This line should list the compile flags specific to your package. Don't add any flags for required packages; pkg-
config will add those automatically.
AUTHOR
pkg-config was written by James Henstridge, rewritten by Martijn van Beers, and rewritten again by Havoc Pennington. Tim
Janik, Owen Taylor, and Raja Harinath submitted suggestions and some code. gnome-config was written by Miguel de Icaza,
Raja Harinath and various hackers in the GNOME team. It was inspired by Owen Taylor's gtk-config program.
BUGS
pkg-config does not handle mixing of parameters with and without = well. Stick with one.
Bugs can be reported at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/ under the pkg-config component.
pkg-config(1)
