Re: [boost] [boost.build] RFE: pkg-config

From: Vladimir Prus (ghost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-06-15 09:46:53

Stefan Seefeld wrote:

> David Abrahams wrote:
> 
>> The problem with adding another tool is that information can all be
>> generated by the build system for dependent projects.  Trying to
>> replicate that capability externally and keep the two in synch would
>> be a nightmare.  That's why this should be done with the build tool.
>> On the other hand, I'm not opposed to using a front-end atop
>> Boost.Build for this purpose.
> 
> I agree that duplicating the data manually would be a maintenance
> nightmare. On the other hand, I don't think users of boost libraries
> should be required to know about bjam either.
> What I imagine is some 'database' (m4 file for autoconf, pkg-config file,
> whatever) that is *generated* by bjam as part of the build process.

That's possible, I think.

> Unix developers are quite used to the idea: tools such as pkg-config
> work exactly like that. Appropriate files are generated during
> configuration / installation, and can be further tuned during the
> packaging, if necessary.
> 
> Again, I'm thinking of platforms such as Fedora or Debian, which both have
> their own package management tools. If I want to develop software that
> is to use boost rpm or deb packages, I'd much appreciate some
> standardization of how to query the boost package(s) about required flags.
> If this isn't done as part of the boost project itself, packagers will do
> it, but probably not in a consistent way.

If this is done by Boost.Build, it's required the all packages use
Boost.Build too. If they build boost in some other way, then there's
nothing we can do.

Looking at 'man pkgconfig' I see the the .pc file are required to contain 
only linker flags and compiler flags. I think that information can be easily
generated by Boost.Build V2 -- because the only variable part is the
installation location and the name of the library.

Actually, why don't just provide static .pc files? On Unix, gcc is the
standard compiler, so libboost_filesystem_gcc.so should work ;-)

- Volodya