pkg-config
Pkg -config (of English. package, "Package " and config, "Configuration " ) is a computer program that provides a uniform interface for querying metadata about any software. pkg -config installed primarily for the version management program libraries is used while delivering for example, information about
- The version number of the program library,
- Required for the C or C compiler or software documentation tools parameters and
- Parameters for the linker.
With the information obtained from the query, such as executable programs can be compiled from source code ( compiled). pkg -config was originally developed for Unix, is today but also for other operating systems such as Microsoft Windows.
History and Significance
In June 2000, the Gnome developers Havoc Pennington published the previous gnome -config in the form of a shell script, which was only usable with limited hard-coded values expandable and only for Gnome itself. A month later, pkg -config translated into the programming language C, the conversion was completed in October 2000. Since June 2002, is used by the GNOME project; pkg -config. Since December 2005 the X.Org project is fully converted to the use of pkg -config.
Pkg -config is starting from Gnome developed throughout different libraries to X.Org to a de facto standard and is used by many software projects on different operating systems. Major projects such as Mozilla Firefox use it to query on the one hand metadata previously installed libraries and on the other hand to provide metadata about their own libraries. pkg -config should replace package-specific configuration scripts.
Operation
During installation, a program library (for example via RPM or dpkg ) is a file with the extension. Pc stored in a distribution -dependent, announced via the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH directory. In it you will find the version number, file system paths to the respective head (fachsprachlich header ) and library files (fachsprachlich Library), compiler and linker switches and other package information. This information is used to compile those programs that use these libraries.