pkg-config does not use my $PKG_CONFIG_PATH

[aacirino]

Hi, in macOS Catalina 10.15.7 with up-to-date brew and pkg-config I am not able to make pkg-config use my $PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable exported in my ./~zshrc profile. Using pkg-config to inspect what it is using gives me a very wrong and short path:

pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config
/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/share/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac/pkgconfig/10.11

I can't find a way to make pkg-config use my path.

Any help is welcome,

Angelo

[gromgit]

Using pkg-config to inspect what it is using gives me a very wrong and short path:

Nope, you're misreading the output. From the pkg-config man page:

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
PKG_CONFIG_PATH
A colon-separated (on Windows, semicolon-separated) list of directories to search for .pc files. The default directory will always be searched after searching the path
[...]
PKG-CONFIG DERIVED VARIABLES
[...]
pc_path
The default search path used by pkg-config when searching for .pc files. This can be used in a query for the pkg-config module itself itself:
$ pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config

In other words, pkg-config will search the directories (if any) specified in PKG_CONFIG_PATH, then (if necessary) the directories listed in pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config. The latter is a fixed list that's configured at build time.

I can't find a way to make pkg-config use my path.

Then you're setting it wrong. If env | grep PKG_CONFIG_PATH returns nothing...

[gromgit]

Proof that Homebrew pkg-config works as advertised on Catalina:

$ which pkg-config
/usr/local/bin/pkg-config

$ pkg-config --variable pc_path pkg-config
/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/share/pkgconfig:/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/os/mac/pkgconfig/10.15

# Let's probe for system python
$ pkg-config --cflags python
Package python was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `python.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'python' found

# Whoops, forgot PKG_CONFIG_PATH
$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/pkgconfig

$ pkg-config --cflags python
-I/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7

[aacirino]

This is my PKG_CONFIG_PATH as you suggested:

PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/icu4c/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/krb5/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libffi/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libressl/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/curl/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/qt/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/tcl-tk/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/openblas/lib/pkgconfig:/Users/aacirino/git/restclient-cpp:/usr/local/opt/zlib/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/opt/libxml2/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/hpx/lib/pkgconfig

But nevermind, after restarting my computer it is working. I don't understand what was wrong. Thanx and have a nice day.