Re: [boost] Finding the correct library to link (feature request for pkg-config support)

From: Michael Walter (michael.walter_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-30 07:41:44

On 7/30/07, Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> Michael Walter wrote:
>
> > On 7/30/07, Vladimir Prus <ghost_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> >> Let's put it this way. pkgconfig is capable of expanding 'boost' into
> >> a bunch of -l, -L and -I compiler options. pkgconfig is not capable of
> >> dealing with variants. Therefore, pkgconfig can be only used when there's
> >> "default variant" that can be linked to. On Linux, we can decide what
> >> such variant is. I'm not sure such default variant can be easily
> >> established on Windows, so pkgconfig is of limited use there.
> >
> > How about simply generating the .pc files during the build process?
> > Then the user can install whatever they feel is the right default to
> > their pkgconfig directory.
>
> Let me ask a straight-forward question. Are you using pkgconfig
> on windows, and if so, is the above what you'd do?

Yes, for projects involving GTK(mm), which comes with and uses pkgconfig.
I would then copy the proper boost .pc file to GTK/lib/pkgconfig.

> My understanding is that right library on windows is highly dependent
> on the type of project you're building, so there's no one default
> that can be installed and make the user happy.

Once you use pkgconfig, you already did settle on a certain
configuration (namely the one used by the other libraries proving .pc
files). So I'm not sure that it is too much of an issue _in that
situation_. What do you think?

Regards,
Michael