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Idea #20516: PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable frequently needed.

Written by Michael Safyan the 3 Jul 09 at 21:08. Category: Programming. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
Many software packages use pkg-config to determine if the required dependencies are available on the system. Because pkg-config requires that the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH to be set, these software packages, in turn, require users to manually set this environment variable. Just as it is common for libraries to be installed into "/usr/local/lib" and Ubuntu now includes "/usr/local/lib" in the default library search path, it is now common to find software packages making use of pkg-config, and it would be incredibly convenient if PKG_CONFIG_PATH were already set.

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Solution #1: Automatically set PKG_CONFIG_PATH.
Written by Michael Safyan the 3 Jul 09 at 21:08.
Modify the default "/etc/profile" and the default "~/.bashrc" so that the environment variable PKG_CONFIG_PATH is set.

The environment variable should contain "$ENTRY/pkgconfig" for every entry "$ENTRY" in LD_LIBRARY_PATH, in /etc/ld.so.conf, and in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf. For example, if /etc/ld.so.conf contains "/usr/local/lib", "/usr/lib", and "/lib", then PKG_CONFIG_PATH would be "/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/lib/pkgconfig".

This would be very simple to implement and would be incredibly convenient for users. It also has precedent in that "/usr/local/lib" is in the default library search path.

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