Re: Exportability of EDA industry from North America?
From: Chuck Harris (cf-NO-SPAM-harris_at_erols.com)
Date: 01/17/05
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Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:46:53 -0500
Rich Grise wrote:
>>Pkg-config does live on my system, but it does nothing interesting
>>because there are no .pc files on my RH9 system. AFAIK there never were.
>>I have compiled numerous packages, and gEDA is the first I have found
>>that requires pkg-config. Further, your detection of gtk2 is the only
>>package in gEDA that ./configure misses. Until I built my first version
>>of gEDA, PKG_CONFIG_PATH wasn't even set on my machine. (I cannot prove
>>it, but I don't think it is set by any RH9 system)
>
>
> Here's part of why I don't like Redmond^H^H^H^HHat:
> richgrise@thunderbird:/opt/gEDA/Source/glib-2.4.8
> $ cat /etc/slackware-version
> Slackware 10.0.0
> richgrise@thunderbird:/opt/gEDA/Source/glib-2.4.8
> $ uname -a
> Linux thunderbird 2.4.26 #6 Mon Jun 14 19:07:27 PDT 2004 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux
> richgrise@thunderbird:/opt/gEDA/Source/glib-2.4.8
> $ find / -name "*.pc" -print 2> /dev/null | wc
> 120 120 4470
> richgrise@thunderbird:/opt/gEDA/Source/glib-2.4.8
> $ ls -l /var/log/packages/gtk*
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10282 2004-06-26 09:13 /var/log/packages/gtk+-1.2.10-i386-3
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45775 2004-06-26 09:13 /var/log/packages/gtk+2-2.4.3-i486-1
> richgrise@thunderbird:/opt/gEDA/Source/glib-2.4.8
>
> I'd never heard of .pc files until I stumbled onto this thread, and I've
> been a Slacker for a number of years.
>
> But I have heard that Redmond^H^H^H^HHat changes configurations from what
> works out of the box, such that you have to use Redmond^H^H^H^HHat RPM's
> or it won't install right. There are Slack precompiled packages, or at
> least they come with an install script that results in a binary and
> configs that are the same as if you'd run ./configure, make, and install
> from source. From what I've heard, RH doesn't do it that way. They modify
> everything.
>
> This is much too close to the Gates of hell for comfort, for me.
>
> Thanks,
> Rich
>
I have done some digging on my system, and found that the only use
of pkg-config is in gui applications that use the gtk* system. I did some
manual page reading and found that pkg-config is a reworked version of
a utility that used to be called gtk-config.
Ok, here's the rub: pkg-config is an attempt at making it easier to
rebuild packages. It gives you somewhat useful information about the
various compile and link options used in building a compliant package.
But outside of gtk based gui applications, *nobody* uses it.
And here's what is wrong with pkg-config. It has a built-in structure
of paths to the various .pc files that are used to describe the system.
The decision on what paths to incorporate in pkg-config is made by the
install part of the "./configure, make, make install" sequence used to
build pkg-config. It bases the paths on where it was originally aimed
at installation. But it would appear that there is no documented way
of asking the utility pkg-config what its default search paths are!
And it would also appear that there is no system wide configuration file
for pkg-config that allows you to tell it what directories to look in
for .pc files. Just the kludge PKG_CONFIG_PATH, which, like LD_LIBRARY_PATH,
is intended for test builds *ONLY*; things like checking to see if a new
version of a library creams your system. Never for distributed packages!
Now, why doesn't *my* pkg-config work. Well, a quick look shows me that
my version was built on December 17th, 2004. I was futzing around with
an earlier version of the gEDA suite around then. I wanted to see if I
could run a trial design from schematic to pc layout. Because of the
problem I had with gSCHEM linking up to transistor symbols, I tried
rebuilding the system using the some mechanism or other, I forget now.
Well, when I rebuilt the system I must have allowed the fool thing to
install its own version of pkg-config over my native version. Only problem
is the version was installed based in my home directory, so pkg-config's
default search paths are based in /home/chuck/gEDA, which doesn't point
to any useful .pc files.
PHBBBBBT!!!
I really hate it when folks use nonstandard stuff in distributions!!!
-Chuck
OBTW, Rich, when I first started linux it was with Yggdrisle's
Slackware linux. My problem was *their* distribution couldn't be
built from source because they put everything in the wrong places.
They broke the many "#include ../../../../../../../foo.h" references
that are endemic to unix programs. With RedHat, everything was where
it belonged. I could build everything from sources without a hitch.
As time passed, Slackware got smart and fixed their distribution, and
RedHat got lazy and fixed everyone elses programs to match their
file system layout ....sigh!
I want to go to Debian, but I am finding it hard to get excited about
ripping my system apart and starting over...If only there was a safe
and easy way to move from RedHat to Debian...
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