meson: missing pkg-config ?

Benoît Rouits <[email protected]> Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:02:04 +0200
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.mentors
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Dear mentors,

While trying to build a personal Debian package for my program 
ebur128adjust* (not in Debian) I experience an issue with a missing 
meson debian dependency/recommendation: pkg-config. however, pkgconf is 
installed but meson seem to have no knowledge of it.

Here is the meson output when looking for libsndfile:


```
Pkg-config binary missing from cross or native file, or env var undefined.
Trying a default Pkg-config fallback at pkg-config
Did not find pkg-config by name 'pkg-config'
Found pkg-config: NO
Dependency lookup for sndfile with method 'pkg-config' failed: 
Pkg-config for machine host machine not found. Giving up.
```

The meson.build file is readable here:

https://git.noise.rocks/ben/ebur128adjust/src/branch/debian/src/meson.build

So I'm asking: Is it normal that meson does not depend on `pkg-config` ?

As a workaround, to build the Debian package, I put pkg-conig in the 
Build-Depends section of d/control. But lintian triggers a warning about 
that:


```
W: ebur128adjust source: build-depends-on-obsolete-package 
Build-Depends: pkg-config => pkgconf
```

Here is the working d/control file:
https://git.noise.rocks/ben/ebur128adjust/src/branch/debian/debian/control

Thank you for attention,
  Benoît

[*] https://git.noise.rocks/ben/ebur128adjust