Re: Working with gtkmm libraries

[Rob Benton <rob benton conwaycorp net>]

Sean Kelley wrote:
> While learning more about gtkmm, I've struggled initially to understand 
> the automake and autoconf approach.  I came across a few tutorials:
>
>
> http://www.openismus.com/documents/linux/automake/automake.shtml
> http://www.openismus.com/documents/linux/using_libraries/using_libraries.shtml
>
> Interestingly enough, until I learned about pkg-config I could not get 
> the deps to be autogenerated.  Is it possible to do automake and 
> autoconf without pkg-config?  Once I added the PKG_CHECK.. and the 
> DEPS_CFLAGS and the DEPS_LIBS flags it picked up the deps.  I am just 
> curious how one would make this work without having pkg-config.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sean
>
>
> configure.ac <http://configure.ac>
> ----------------
> AC_INIT(hello.cc)
>
> PKG_CHECK_MODULES(DEPS, gtkmm-2.4 )
> AC_SUBST(DEPS_CFLAGS)
> AC_SUBST(DEPS_LIBS)
> AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE(hello,0.1)
> AC_PROG_CC
> AC_PROG_CXX
> AC_OUTPUT(Makefile)
>
> Makefile.am <http://Makefile.am>
> ----------------
> INCLUDES = $(DEPS_CFLAGS)
> LIBS = $(DEPS_LIBS)
> bin_PROGRAMS = hello
> hello_SOURCES = hello.cc
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yes you can do it without pkg-config.  Where pkg-config helps is not 
directly with autoconf but that you can pass it the "--libs" or 
"--cflags" to get all the right options for your system.  That macro 
"PKG_CHECK_MODULES" is defined in the file "aclocal.m4".  You can write 
your own method either in configure.ac or aclocal.m4 but be aware that 
the code in aclocal.m4 uses a blend of shell and M4 syntax.  That's the 
sucky part.