[csw-devel] Some packages are missing the .pc-Files

[Jonathan Wheeler]

Christian Walther wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> a few days ago I tried to compile Firefox 3.0b5 on Solaris 10/Sparc.

> It turned out that some Blastwave packages obviously are missing the .pc files.
> I checked this for gtk+-2.0.pc and for dbus-glib. The problem is that
> the configure script terminates on every missing .pc-file.
> 
> Are these files missing intentionally, or should I file a bug report
> for both packages?

To my understanding, there is a push to avoid retaining libtool files 
(.la) wherever possible. Obviously for existing packages that already 
have them, they can't simply be removed as other packages are already 
depending on them.

I'm not sure what the policy is on .pc files however. I think we're 
meant to retain them everywhere, as pkgconfig is less forgiven than 
libtool when it comes to missing .pc files - as you're discovering.

I know that wasn't quite the focus of your email, but it seems an 
appropriate time to clarify this point. Phil - what are we doing with 
.pc files on the packaging front?

Jonathan