pkg-config

Richard Atterer wrote
> A nicer solution would be to allow relative paths in .pc files (relative to
> the directory which contains the .pc file), then just setting
> PKG_CONFIG_PATH would be enough.

In my opinion, it's not necessarily that useful to make pkg-config
support end-user-choosable installation location on Unix, as the
libraries that said .pc files describe aren't freely locatable
anyway. On Unix, for instance both the GTK and Pango libraries
(regardless whether built shared or static) contain hardcoded paths to
the installation path decided at configure time. (Used to look up
dynamically loaded modules, rc files, message catalogs.)

The situation is different on Windows, where at least the libraries I
have ported, to be built as DLLs, can be installed anywhere, and look
up their installation location at run time.

But anyway, if you have patches or ideas for pkg-config on Unix,
submit them to its author, Havoc Pennington. I don't think there is
any mailing list especially for pkg-config, but gtk-devel-list
probably would be fine. (Better than gimpwin-dev.)

--tml