From 5e37b623da281132c9d5040e3682b807b61afed4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: William Pitcock Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2015 16:26:28 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] README: clarify differences between pkgconf and pkg-config, scope of compatibility between the two (closes #78) --- README.md | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 770c357..6ac7a29 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -50,6 +50,26 @@ pkgconf also does not bundle any third-party libraries or depend on any third-pa libraries, making it a great tool for embedded systems and distributions with security concerns. +## other differences verses pkg-config + +As previously mentioned, pkgconf makes optimizations to the linker flags in both the +case of static and shared linking in order to avoid overlinking binaries and also +simplifies the `CFLAGS` and `LIBS` output of the pkgconf tool for improved readability. + +This functionality depends on the pkg-config module properly declaring it's dependency +tree instead of using `Libs` and `Cflags` fields to directly link against other modules +which have pkg-config metadata files installed. + +Doing so is discouraged by the [freedesktop tutorial][fd-tut] anyway. + + [fd-tut]: http://people.freedesktop.org/~dbn/pkg-config-guide.html + +Beyond that, we do not provide bug-level compatibility with pkg-config. What that means +is, if you feel that there is a legitimate regression verses pkg-config, do let us know, +but also make sure that the .pc files are valid and follow the rules of the +[pkg-config tutortial][fd-tut], as most likely fixing them to follow the specified +rules will solve the problem. + ## compiling pkgconf is basically compiled the same way any other autotools-based project is