Re: ATK installation problems

[Ryan Schmidt <gtk-2005 ryandesign com>]

On Sep 15, 2005, at 05:38, Brahma wrote:

> Im trying to install GTK and getting stuck at the
> ./configure of atk. Here's what Im getting as error:
>
> ==================================================
> checking for GLIB - version >= 2.5.7...
> *** 'pkg-config --modversion glib-2.0' returned 2.8.1, but GLIB  
> (2.0.6)
> *** was found! If pkg-config was correct, then it is best
> *** to remove the old version of GLib. You may also be able to fix  
> the error
> *** by modifying your LD_LIBRARY_PATH enviroment variable, or by  
> editing
> *** /etc/ld.so.conf. Make sure you have run ldconfig if that is
> *** required on your system.
> *** If pkg-config was wrong, set the environment variable  
> PKG_CONFIG_PATH
> *** to point to the correct configuration files
>
> [snip]
>
> ==================================================
>
> I searched the web and I find that tens and hundereds
> (maybe even millions) of people are getting the same
> goddammed errors and there's no advise out there as to
> whats to be/can be done!?! No one seems to know
> anything more than what's suggested by the 'configure'
> script !!
>
> I just we thru the entire drill of installing all the
> dependency packages viz., pkgconfig, glib, fonttype,
> fontconfig, pango, and I try 'atk' and the damn thing
> does not recognise that Ive upgraded my glib just
> minutes earlier. Ive tried (like the hundreds and
> thousands of others) all the usual set of tricks but
> in vain! Im writing to wake-up the so-called 'GLIB,
> GTK' developers to take note that their shabby work is
> making millions of people waste their valuable time!?!
> I dont want to give any credit to this doggone shit
> that Im getting this stuff for FREE, my foot!?! I know
> that they are not going to respond anyways since many
> hundreds have called out to them in vain before me!
> JUST DONT THROW SHIT AT PEOPLE! #$^

I understand your frustration. I wasn't sure if, when you wrote "viz"  
above, you meant AT&T's graphviz [1]. If you did, then I can tell you  
that I've been working with the graphviz team for months now trying  
to get the current version working properly on Mac OS X with the new  
cairo renderer, so I've gotten to know these compilation problems  
quite well. The glib / gtk+ / atk / pango dependencies were really  
annoying, especially the error you point out above, where atk only  
seems to half find the newer version of glib that just got installed.  
After wading through lots of hits on Google I finally was able to  
solve it. I was compiling everything into a nonstandard location  
$HOME/graphviz, because I didn't want to change the system libraries  
just yet, so I used "--prefix=$HOME/graphviz" on every ./configure  
invocation. This worked for the other dependencies, but not for atk,  
which I had to configure like this:

PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/graphviz/lib/pkgconfig \
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/graphviz/lib \
./configure --prefix=$HOME/graphviz

And, of course, if you're installing in a different directory, then  
you should use that directory instead of $HOME/graphviz like I did.

Perhaps this use of LD_LIBRARY_PATH is obvious to the developers, but  
it sure wasn't to me; took me weeks to work out. I'm not a C  
programmer; I'm a PHP programmer, and we never have to deal with that  
sort of thing. Moreover, I've compiled many a package in my years as  
Unix and Mac OS X systems administrator, but this is the first time  
I've had to deal with LD_LIBRARY_PATH. It begs the question if the  
atk configure process is doing all it could.

If it's indeed graphviz you're looking to compile, then the good news  
is that the latest 2.7 development snapshots no longer require any of  
glib, gtk+, pango or atk. The latest version that correctly compiles  
on Mac OS X is the 2.7.20050910.0430 snapshot which should still be  
available [2] for a few days, or if it isn't by the time you read  
this, then you can email me; I still have it. Newer versions probably  
also still work on other platforms.

Developers: is there anything that can be done to make the atk  
configure process, um, work more like we expect it to (that is, not  
having to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH)? The first result when searching  
Google for "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" (to try to learn what it is) is "Why  
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is bad" [3] which certainly doesn't make me thrilled  
about atk's ./configure requiring it.


[1] http://www.graphviz.org/

[2] http://www.graphviz.org/pub/graphviz/CURRENT/

[3] http://www.visi.com/~barr/ldpath.html