Re: installable gnulib library

[Gary V. Vaughan]

Hi Bruce,

On 9 Oct 2010, at 22:40, Bruce Korb wrote:
>> I think I know why pkg-config makes autotools people wince...
>> 
>> <rant>
>> I still regret not having noticed pkg-config before it became so pervasive -
>> it basically repeats all of the work libtool already did, and then ignores
>> a few critically important parts, so that if you use any kind of directory
> 
> I submit that it isn't completely too late.  Add a LT_CREATE_PKG_CONFIG
> configure macro that spits out a .pc file named after the AC_INIT-named
> package.  How hard can that be?  (I am *not* volunteering....)
> However, you are certainly right about that PKG_CONFIG_PATH thing.
> /etc/sysconfig/pkgconfig would have been very useful.....

It is the .pc files that are the problem actually.

libtool already contains most of the information that pkg-config wants, and
it is much smarter about looking for deplips along the library search path
without requiring the manual maintenance of *another* path for a tool that
doesn't know it's way around the library search path.

The right solution would be to make sure that the .la files include any
additional details required to provide the output that pkg-config users are
chasing, and to add a mode to the libtool script to extract and display it.

No pkg-config tool required.  No .pc files required.  No PKG_CONFIG_PATH
required. Much much easier to use and maintain for all involved... pity
about all the man years wasted on pkg-config :(

Cheers,
-- 
Gary V. Vaughan (address@hidden)

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