README: clarify differences between pkgconf and pkg-config, scope of compatibility between the two (closes #78)

feature/tap-sh
William Pitcock 2015-07-19 16:26:28 -05:00
parent 72c6e9237b
commit 5e37b623da
1 changed files with 20 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -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 libraries, making it a great tool for embedded systems and distributions with
security concerns. 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 ## compiling
pkgconf is basically compiled the same way any other autotools-based project is pkgconf is basically compiled the same way any other autotools-based project is