Re: Should -dev packages providing .pc files depend on pkg-config?

[Roger Leigh <rleigh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Simon Richter <sjr@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>> Consider there's a package foo which is built against libbar-dev and
>> uses pkg-config to obtain the necessary CFLAGS and LIBS for libbar.
>
>> Now is it the foo package's or the libbar-dev package's duty to provide
>> the dependency on pkg-config?
>
> Disagreeing with the others: It is the -dev package's responsibility.
>
> The foo package's build dependencies are only relevant when building the
> foo package. For someone who develops software based on libbar, it is
> not obvious that foo's build dependencies are required.

As an upstream, I include a .pc file for the convenience of people who
want to link with my libraries.  However, using pkg-config or
PKG_CHECK_MODULES is entirely optional, and so really a Suggests or
Recommends is more appropriate.  If the user decides to use
pkg-config, then it's really their responsibility to have pkg-config
in their Build-Depends, not that of the library packager.


Regards,
Roger

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