Re: gtk-config regarding

["William D. Tallman" <wtallman olypen com>]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 07:45:37AM -0000, Bala Murugan wrote:

<snip>
> checking for GTK - version >= 0.99.7... no
> *** The gtk-config script installed by GTK could not be found
> *** If GTK was installed in PREFIX, make sure PREFIX/bin is in
> *** your path, or set the GTK_CONFIG environment variable to the
> *** full path to gtk-config.
<snip>

The part you should read.

Find out where gtk-config is on your installation.  Make a symlink from
there to where the application needs it to be.  Recompile.

Eventually, one discovers that these guys who roll up these tarballs are
pretty sharp, and what they tell you to do is most often exactly what
you need to do.  Notice the asterisks preceeding the explanation.  They
are there to call your attention to what you need to read.

Now, how do you know what $PREFIX is?  What you do is 'grep -n PREFIX
configure', and then go to the line numbers and see what PREFIX is.
Most often it's /usr/local.

So what are you looking for?  It's listed in the first line: gtk-config,
and it's called a script.  So where is it on your system?  Do 'slocate
gtk-config', and you'll probably find it somewhere like /usr/bin.  So
you do 'file /usr/bin/gtk-config', and you find out that gtk-config is a
Bourne shell script text executable.  That's what you're looking for.
Problem is, your configure file doubtless already knows to look in
/usr/bin, and hasn't found it.

What happens when 'slocate gtk-config' turns up empty?

That's when you ask rpm to list the files, and it will tell you where it
is, if indeed you have it.

Hint:  learn the shell commands.  Using them will tell you everything
you need to know, and will allow you to perform most, if not all, tasks
your system will ever require.

----------------

You're new to Linux, and it can be a bit daunting.  The key is to read
what the system tells you word for word and make sure you actually
understand what it's telling you.  Most folk reread this stuff three or
four times to make sure they actually see what is there.  It gets easier
once you get used to it, and when you've run one of these systems for a
while, you'll wonder how you ever managed to use anything else.

Oh, and the convention is that you install all compiled applications at
the local level.  That's /usr/local, which mirrors /usr in most
particulars.  Make symlinks as necessary and it'll "just work".

Good luck,

Bill Tallman