--- name: "gnome-config" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "libgnome-dev" version: "1.4.2-37+b2" release: "Debian 5.0 (Lenny)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/gnome-config" --- # gnome-config(1) GNOME libraries and component information retrieval. ## NAME gnome-config - GNOME libraries and component information retrieval. ## SYNOPSIS **gnome-config** \[--version\] \[--help\] \[--cflags\] \[--libs\] \[--libs-only-L\] \[--libs-only-l\] \[--prefix\] \[--exec-prefix\] \[--bindir\] \[--sbindir\] \[--libexecdir\] \[--datadir\] \[--sysconfdir\] \[--sharedstatedir\] \[--localstatedir\] \[--libdir\] \[--infodir\] \[--mandir\] \[--includedir\] \[--modversion\] \[LIBRARIES...\] ## DESCRIPTION The *gnome-config* program is used to retrieve information from installed libraries in the system. It is typically used to compile and link against one or more GNOME libraries. Here is a typical usage scenario in a Makefile: ``` program: program.c cc program.c `gnome-config --cflags --libs gnomeui` ``` Usually, a combination of flags is used like --cflags and --libs in conjunction with the list of libraries that your program uses. These libraries are specified as part of the command line. *gnome-config* includes hard-coded information for a number of libraries: the ones used to build gnome-libs, and the ones provided by gnome-libs (which *gnome-config* is part of). Other libraries are integrated by providing gnome-config modules. ## OPTIONS The following Generic options are supported: - *--version* Requests that the gnome-libs version information be displayed. - *--modversion* Requests that the version information of the libraries specified on the command line be displayed. This information is either the gnome-libs version for libraries that are part of gnome-libs, or the version specified in **MODULE\_VERSION** variable in the module configuration file. - *--help* Displays a help message and terminates. The following options are used to compile and link programs with GNOME libraries and components: - *--cflags* This prints pre-processor and compiler flags required to compile the module with the libraries specified on the command line. - *--libs* This prints the library linking information. These flags can be passed to the compiler driver to link an object file with the libraries specified on the command line. - *--libs-only-L* This only prints the -L/-R part of --libs for the libraries specified on the command line. - *--libs-only-l* This only prints the -l part of --libs for the libraries specified on the command line. The following options are used to find out the directories that were used to install the various files that are part of the GNOME distribution, they correspond to the variable names used by the Makefiles (Makefiles in GNOME are compliant with the GNU standard for makefiles, and they typically use GNU autoconf and GNU automake to get these right and uniform): - *--prefix* Outputs the prefix that was used to configure the GNOME libraries. - *--exec-prefix* Outputs the exec-prefix used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--bindir* Outputs the bindir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--sbindir* Outputs the sbindir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--libexecdir* Outputs the libexecdir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--datadir* Outputs the datadir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--sysconfdir* Outputs the sysconfdir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--sharedstatedir* Outputs the sharedstatedir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--localstatedir* Outputs the localstatedir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--libdir* Outputs the libdir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--infodir* Outputs the infodir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--mandir* Outputs the mandir used to install the GNOME libraries. - *--includedir* Outputs the includedir used to install the GNOME libraries. The basic set of libraries you can link with are: ``` glib (calls glib-config) idl (to be used with orbit-idl) gnome gnomeui gnorba gtk (calls gtk-config) gtkxmhtml (only --libs) zvt (only --libs) ``` ## MODULE INTEGRATION *gnome-config* can incorporate more GNOME libraries, to do so the library author needs to install an xxxxConf.sh file in the directory returned by "gnome-config --libdir" or in any directory listed in the **GNOME\_LIBCONFIG\_PATH** environment variable or in the directory pointed by **GNOME\_PATH/lib** The prefix "xxxx" should be substituted with the module name, for example, the applets library installs the appletConf.sh file. The configuration file is a shell script evaluated by *gnome-config* and it should define four shell variable settings: - *xxx\_LIBDIR* This specifies any directory paths required to find the libraries defined by this module. - *XXX\_LIBS* A list of compiler options to link the code with this module. - *XXX\_INCLUDEDIR* This specifies the flags that should be passed to the compiler for the program to be able to locate the header files provided by the module. - *MODULE\_VERSION* This should be the module version number. It should be in the format "module-version", for example "bonobo-0.1" is a valid **MODULE\_VERSION** setting. This is an example file for an imaginary library called "foo": ``` # # Configuration file for using library foo. # FOO_LIBDIR="-L/opt/foo/lib" FOO_LIBS="-lfoo" FOO_INCLUDEDIR="-I/opt/foo/include" MODULE_VERSION=foo-2.3 ``` Typically these files are generated at configuration or compilation time, authors usually use a template file, this is an example template file for fooConf.sh, it is called fooConf.sh.in: ``` # # Configuration file for using library foo. # FOO_LIBDIR="@FOO_LIBDIR@" FOO_LIBS="@FOO_LIBS@" FOO_INCLUDEDIR="@FOO_INCLUDEDIR@" MODULE_VERSION=foo-@VERSION@ ``` The above template file is typically processed by the Makefile to produce the actual configuration file. This is a sample piece of code that shows how to get this right: ``` ## We create fooConf.sh here and not from configure because we want ## to get the paths expanded correctly. Macros like srcdir are given ## the value NONE in configure if the user doesn't specify them (this ## is an autoconf feature, not a bug). fooConf.sh: fooConf.sh.in Makefile ## Use sed and then mv to avoid problems if the user interrupts. sed -e 's?@FOO_LIBDIR@?$(FOO_LIBDIR)?g' \ -e 's?@FOO_INCLUDEDIR@?$(FOO_INCLUDEDIR)?g' \ -e 's?@FOO_LIBS@?$(FOO_LIBS)?g' \ -e 's?@VERSION@@?$(VERSION)?g' \ < $(srcdir)/fooConf.sh.in > fooConf.tmp \ && mv fooConf.tmp fooConf.sh ``` This file is then copied into a system accessible location. ## ENVIRONMENT The *gnome-config* program uses the directories listed in the **GNOME\_LIBCONFIG\_PATH** to locate library definition files (Conf.sh) installed on the system. The variable **GNOME\_PATH** is used as a list of directories where GNOME applications and libraries have been installed. *gnome-config* looks in the *lib* subdirectory of each directory listed here for library definition files (Conf.sh) installed. ## AUTHOR gnome-config was written by Miguel de Icaza, Raja Harinath and various hackers in the GNOME team. It was inspired by Owen Taylor's *gtk-config* program. ## SEE ALSO **[gnome(1)](/gnome/1.md),** **[gtk-config(1)](/gtk-config/1.md),** ## BUGS If you find bugs in the *gnome-config* program, please report these using the *gnome-bug* script included with the GNOME libraries distribution.