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Bug 4399

Summary: Please make sdl2-config optional to install
Product: SDL Reporter: Hugh McMaster <hugh.mcmaster>
Component: buildAssignee: Sam Lantinga <slouken>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact: Sam Lantinga <slouken>
Severity: normal    
Priority: P2 CC: hugh.mcmaster
Version: 2.0.8   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
Attachments: Disable installation of sdl2-config by default
Make installation of sdl2-config optional

Description Hugh McMaster 2018-11-24 11:25:50 UTC 
Hi,

sdl2-config causes problems when cross-compiling, as it doesn't support multi-arch systems, such as those used by Debian and Ubuntu. (Debian uses /usr/lib/<gnu-triplet> paths to store development files for different architectures.)

pkg-config is much better at supporting cross-compiling. Plus, pkg-config is comfortably available on all systems these days.

Can you please deprecate sdl2-config? Or, at least, make it optional to install via a configure flag?

If you need a patch for this, I can generate one for you.

Thank you
Comment 1 Hugh McMaster 2019-03-28 10:56:11 UTC 
Created attachment 3715 [details]
Disable installation of sdl2-config by default

The attached patch disables the installaiton of sdl2-config by default.

Packagers wishing to ship sdl2-config should pass --enable-sdl2-config to configure.
Comment 2 Sam Lantinga 2019-04-02 12:35:03 UTC 
I'd much rather improve sdl2-config so that it works correctly with multi-arch systems. It's still used by a bunch of projects and SDL examples, so I don't want to remove it by default.

A patch to prefer PKG_CONFIG over sdl2-config in sdl.m4 would be fine as well, if that takes care of the problem you're trying to solve.
Comment 3 Hugh McMaster 2019-04-03 12:28:38 UTC 
(In reply to Sam Lantinga from comment #2)
> I'd much rather improve sdl2-config so that it works correctly with
> multi-arch systems. It's still used by a bunch of projects and SDL examples,
> so I don't want to remove it by default.

To be honest, I'm not sure sdl2-config can ever be multi-arch co-installable, as @libdir@ will always cause a file conflict on Debian-based systems.

Removing the libdir paths would fix this, but such a change is probably unwanted.

> A patch to prefer PKG_CONFIG over sdl2-config in sdl.m4 would be fine as
> well, if that takes care of the problem you're trying to solve.

Would you support a patch that installs sdl2-config by default, but allows the user to prevent its installation by passing --disable-sdl2-config (or --enable-sdl2-config=no) to configure?

I'm also happy to look at patching sdl.m4 as well.
Comment 4 Hugh McMaster 2019-04-08 10:54:49 UTC 
Created attachment 3738 [details]
Make installation of sdl2-config optional

Hi Sam,

I've altered the patch so users can disable the installation of sdl2-config if desired.

sdl2-config is installed by default if no flag is passed to configure.
Comment 5 Hugh McMaster 2019-04-08 10:55:23 UTC 
sdl.m4 already prefers pkg-config over sdl2-config, so there is no need to patch that macro file.
Comment 6 Sam Lantinga 2019-04-23 14:43:25 UTC 
Looks good, thanks!
https://hg.libsdl.org/SDL/rev/8ed803255020