PkgConfigDeps¶

The PkgConfigDeps is the dependencies generator for pkg-config. Generates pkg-config files named <PKG-NAME>.pc containing a valid pkg-config file syntax.

This generator can be used by name in conanfiles:

conanfile.py¶

class Pkg(ConanFile):
    generators = "PkgConfigDeps"

conanfile.txt¶

[generators]
PkgConfigDeps

And it can also be fully instantiated in the conanfile generate() method:

from conan import ConanFile
from conan.tools.gnu import PkgConfigDeps

class App(ConanFile):
    settings = "os", "arch", "compiler", "build_type"
    requires = "zlib/1.2.11"

    def generate(self):
        pc = PkgConfigDeps(self)
        pc.generate()

Generated files¶

pkg-config format files named <PKG-NAME>.pc, containing a valid pkg-config file syntax. The prefix variable is automatically adjusted to the package_folder:

prefix=/Users/YOUR_USER/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.11/_/_/package/647afeb69d3b0a2d3d316e80b24d38c714cc6900
libdir=${prefix}/lib
includedir=${prefix}/include
bindir=${prefix}/bin

Name: zlib
Description: Conan package: zlib
Version: 1.2.11
Libs: -L"${libdir}" -lz -F Frameworks
Cflags: -I"${includedir}"

Customization¶

Naming¶

By default, the *.pc files will be named following these rules:

For packages, it uses the package name, e.g., package zlib/1.2.11 -> zlib.pc.
For components, the package name + hyphen + component name, e.g., openssl/3.0.0 with self.cpp_info.components["crypto"] -> openssl-crypto.pc.

You can change that default behavior with the pkg_config_name and pkg_config_aliases properties. See Properties section below.

If a recipe uses components, the files generated will be <[PKG-NAME]-[COMP-NAME]>.pc with their corresponding flags and require relations.

Additionally, a <PKG-NAME>.pc is generated to maintain compatibility for consumers with recipes that start supporting components. This <PKG-NAME>.pc file declares all the components of the package as requires while the rest of the fields will be empty, relying on the propagation of flags coming from the components <[PKG-NAME]-[COMP-NAME]>.pc files.

Reference¶

class PkgConfigDeps(conanfile)¶

property content¶: Get all the .pc files content

generate()¶: Save all the *.pc files

Attributes¶

build_context_activated¶

When you have a build-require, by default, the *.pc files are not generated. But you can activate it using the build_context_activated attribute:

tool_requires = ["my_tool/0.0.1"]
def generate(self):
    pc = PkgConfigDeps(self)
    # generate the *.pc file for the tool require
    pc.build_context_activated = ["my_tool"]
    pc.generate()

build_context_folder¶

New since Conan 2.2.0

When you have the same package as a build-require and as a regular require it will cause a conflict in the generator because the file names of the *.pc files will collide as well as the names, requires names, etc.

For example, this is a typical situation with some requirements (capnproto, protobuf…) that contain a tool used to generate source code at build time (so it is a build_require), but also providing a library to link to the final application, so you also have a regular require. Solving this conflict is specially important when we are cross-building because the tool (that will run in the building machine) belongs to a different binary package than the library, that will “run” in the host machine.

You can use the build_context_folder attribute to specify a folder to save the *.pc files created by all those build requirements listed in the build_context_activated one:

tool_requires = ["my_tool/0.0.1"]
requires = ["my_tool/0.0.1"]
def generate(self):
    pc = PkgConfigDeps(self)
    # generate the *.pc file for the tool require
    pc.build_context_activated = ["my_tool"]
    # save all the *.pc files coming from the "my_tool" build context and its requirements
    pc.build_context_folder = "build"  # [generators_folder]/build/
    pc.generate()

build_context_suffix¶

DEPRECATED: use build_context_folder attribute instead

Same concept as the quoted build_context_folder attribute above, but this is meant to specify a suffix for a requirement, so the files/requires/names of the requirement in the build context (tool require) will be renamed:

tool_requires = ["my_tool/0.0.1"]
requires = ["my_tool/0.0.1"]
def generate(self):
    pc = PkgConfigDeps(self)
    # generate the *.pc file for the tool require
    pc.build_context_activated = ["my_tool"]
    # disambiguate the files, requires, names, etc
    pc.build_context_suffix = {"my_tool": "_BUILD"}
    pc.generate()

Important

This attribute should not be used simultaneously with the build_context_folder attribute.

Properties¶

The following properties affect the PkgConfigDeps generator:

pkg_config_name property will define the name of the generated *.pc file (xxxxx.pc)
pkg_config_aliases property sets some aliases of any package/component name for pkg_config generator. This property only accepts list-like Python objects.
pkg_config_custom_content property will add user defined content to the .pc files created by this generator as freeform variables. That content can be a string or a dict-like Python object. Notice that the variables declared here will overwrite those ones already defined by Conan. Click here for more information about the type of variables in a *.pc file.
system_package_version: property sets a custom version to be used in the Version field belonging to the created *.pc file for the package.
component_version property sets a custom version to be used in the Version field belonging to the created *.pc file for that component (takes precedence over the system_package_version property).

These properties can be defined at global cpp_info level or at component level.

Example:

def package_info(self):
    custom_content = {"datadir": "${prefix}/share"}  # or "datadir=${prefix}/share"
    self.cpp_info.set_property("pkg_config_custom_content", custom_content)
    self.cpp_info.set_property("pkg_config_name", "myname")
    self.cpp_info.components["mycomponent"].set_property("pkg_config_name", "componentname")
    self.cpp_info.components["mycomponent"].set_property("pkg_config_aliases", ["alias1", "alias2"])
    self.cpp_info.components["mycomponent"].set_property("component_version", "1.14.12")