---
name: "u-config"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "u-config"
version: "0.33.3-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/u-config"
---

# u-config(1)

smaller, simpler, portable pkg-config clone

## NAME

**u-config** – smaller, simpler, portable pkg-config clone

## SYNOPSIS

**u-config** \[*options*\] *package* \[*package* *...*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**u-config** is a small, highly portable pkg-config and pkgconf clone. It retrieves compiler and linker flags, version, and other dependency information of software packages.

Package metadata is retrieved from “.pc” text files, located in a system-specific path. You can override the default search path with environment variables like PKG\_CONFIG\_PATH. See ENVIRONMENT for more information.

This manual page describes the **u-config** utility in particular. For general information about pkg-config concepts and its file format, refer to manual pages provided by other projects, like [pkgconf(1)](/pkgconf/1.md) and [pc(5)](/pc/5.md).

**u-config** supports a subset of the options of other pkg-config implementations. For a list of supported options, use the **--help** option. Some of them are unique to **u-config**:

- **--newlines**

  Separate arguments by line feeds instead of spaces, which is sometimes useful like in the fish shell or when manually examining output.

- **--msvc-syntax**

  Translates and prints compiler arguments into a syntax compatible with the MSVC compiler. For example, **-l** *libname* becomes **libname.lib**.

## ENVIRONMENT

**u-config** supports all the important pkg-config run-time environment variables. To see which are supported, use the **--help** option.

## EXAMPLES

```
$ u-config --cflags --libs foo
-I/usr/include/foo -DFOO_HAS_BAR=1 -lfoo
```

## SEE ALSO

[pkgconf(1)](/pkgconf/1.md), [pc(5)](/pc/5.md)

## AUTHORS

**u-config** was written by Chris Wellons ⟨*wellons@nullprogram.com*⟩. This manual page was written by Andrea Pappacoda ⟨*andrea@pappacoda.it*⟩ for the Debian project (and may be used by others).