[Ffmpeg-devel] Purpose of lib*-uninstalled.pc files

[Aurelien Jacobs]

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 01:25:23 +0000
M?ns Rullg?rd <mru at inprovide.com> wrote:

> The configure script currently creates two sets of pkgconfig files.
> One lot is installed, and this part I understand.  Also created are
> similar pkgconfig files called libavformat-uninstalled.pc etc.  The
> purpose of these I do not quite understand, even after perusing the
> list archives.  These files are not installed, and neither are they
> referenced anywhere in the ffmpeg tree.  Are they serving a purpose
> I am failing to see, or are they cruft that can be disabled without
> causing anyone discomfort?  These files are obviously not doing any
> damage where they are, but I like keeping the configure script nice
> and tidy.  A quick Google search doesn't turn up evidence of anyone
> else using those files so unless someone shouts they'll be history.

The name of those files seems quite self-explanatory.
The purpose is to link an app to an uninstalled version of ffmpeg
using pkg-config.
Let's imagine you built ffmpeg sources in ~/ffmpeg and you want to
build proga (which use lavc and use pkg-config to detect it).
Then you simply need to `export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=~/ffmpeg` before
compiling proga and your done. pkg-config will automatically pick-up
the -uninstalled version of .pc files.

I don't know if many people use this feature, but this is a standard
pkg-config feature, and I can imagine situations where it would be
pretty handy.

Aurel