Comments on: pkg-config vs. Cross Compile and Multi-arch http://blogs.gnome.org/jamesh/2005/07/04/pkg-config-vs-cross-compile-and-multi-arch/ Random stuff Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:12:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Ian Campbell http://blogs.gnome.org/jamesh/2005/07/04/pkg-config-vs-cross-compile-and-multi-arch/#comment-11 Ian Campbell Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/jamesh/2005/07/04/pkg-config-vs-cross-compile-and-multi-arch/#comment-11 I like the look of what you are doing, but thought you might be interested in how we have solved this problem for cross compiling.<p/>We have a cross tool chain (e.g. arm-linux-gcc) which is installed into prefix /opt/arcom/. We then build pkg-config with --libdir=/opt/arcom/arm-linux/lib --program-prefix=arm-linux-<p/>Now when we cross compile libraries we put their .pc into the arm-linux pkgconfig directory and when we build something using pkg-config we pass in $PKGCONFIG (or whatever it is called) as arm-linux-pkgconfig -- which has nice symmetry with overriding $CC etc. If --host=arm-linux would cause configure to search for arm-linux-pkgconfig automatically like it does with gcc then that would be even cooler.<p/>This scheme probably doesn't help at all with bi-arch though.<p/>Ian. I like the look of what you are doing, but thought you might be interested in how we have solved this problem for cross compiling.

We have a cross tool chain (e.g. arm-linux-gcc) which is installed into prefix /opt/arcom/. We then build pkg-config with –libdir=/opt/arcom/arm-linux/lib –program-prefix=arm-linux-

Now when we cross compile libraries we put their .pc into the arm-linux pkgconfig directory and when we build something using pkg-config we pass in $PKGCONFIG (or whatever it is called) as arm-linux-pkgconfig — which has nice symmetry with overriding $CC etc. If –host=arm-linux would cause configure to search for arm-linux-pkgconfig automatically like it does with gcc then that would be even cooler.

This scheme probably doesn’t help at all with bi-arch though.

Ian.

]]> By: James Henstridge http://blogs.gnome.org/jamesh/2005/07/04/pkg-config-vs-cross-compile-and-multi-arch/#comment-12 James Henstridge Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://blogs.gnome.org/jamesh/2005/07/04/pkg-config-vs-cross-compile-and-multi-arch/#comment-12 Ian: with these changes, you should be able to use the system's default pkg-config binary. It will just skip the system configured search paths, and only look in the directories you set in $PKG_CONFIG_PATH (which is the instructions most packages give you if installed packages can't be found).<p/>Having multiple pkg-config binaries would be another option, but the only difference between them would be about 3 strings inside the binaries, which seems a bit wasteful. It also removes the need to recompile pkg-config when you want to target a new host type. Ian: with these changes, you should be able to use the system’s default pkg-config binary. It will just skip the system configured search paths, and only look in the directories you set in $PKG_CONFIG_PATH (which is the instructions most packages give you if installed packages can’t be found).

Having multiple pkg-config binaries would be another option, but the only difference between them would be about 3 strings inside the binaries, which seems a bit wasteful. It also removes the need to recompile pkg-config when you want to target a new host type.

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