Re: lua.pc pkg-config file

[Nicola Fontana <ntd@...>]

Il Thu, 26 Mar 2015 16:22:48 +0200 steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@gmail.com> scrisse:

> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:24 PM, Nicola Fontana <ntd@entidi.it> wrote:
> > pkg-config is just a piece of C code (just like Lua) that makes life
> > (much) easier to packagers, period. When you are cross-compiling (and
> > guess what I'm doing right now?) it is not usefull, it is essential!
> 
> It is an unusually awkward piece of C code:
> 
> $ ldd $(which pkg-config)  (taking out linux-specific stuff)
>     libglib-2.0.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libglib-2.0.so.0
> (0x00007fa31b16a000)
>     libpopt.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpopt.so.0 (0x00007fa31af5e000)
>     libpcre.so.3 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpcre.so.3 (0x00007fa31a959000)
>     libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0
> (0x00007fa31a73b000)

This is OT but... yes, C code can have dependencies and still be C code.

$ ldd $(command -vp lua)
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd9a5fc000)
libm.so.6 => /usr/lib/libm.so.6 (0x00007f558a463000)
libdl.so.2 => /usr/lib/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f558a25f000)
libreadline.so.6 => /usr/lib/libreadline.so.6 (0x00007f558a014000)
libc.so.6 => /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007f5589c71000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f558a768000)
libncursesw.so.5 => /usr/lib/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f5589a0c000)

> that Glib dependency is the nasty one, a very Gnome-centric thing.

Although hosted on gnome.org GLib2 is hardly GNOME-centric. Even my
LaTeX distro (together with tons of other non-GNOME applications)
depends on GLib2.

> I did a very functional clone in 500 lines of C, when testing llib,
> with absolutely no dynamic dependencies.  I imagine a smart person
> could do a Lua version in about that as well, but do note that the
> manual lies about some important things.

We are not discussing on the technical merits/demerits of pkg-config,
but on the advantages/disadvantages of including the generation of a
lua.pc file in the official Lua distro.

Ciao.
-- 
Nicola