overby.me / oxidized-pkg-config
A pkg-config-compatible build metadata tool written in Rust
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Oxidized pkg-config #

Part of the overby.me monorepo, where this lives in safety/oxidized/pkg-config and where all development happens.

It is also published on its own, as tangled.org/overby.me/oxidized-pkg-config and github.com/overby-me/oxidized-pkg-config. Both are read-only mirrors, rebuilt from the monorepo with josh: a commit made to either is overwritten by the next sync, so please open issues and pull requests on the monorepo.

A pure Rust rewrite and drop-in replacement for pkg-config / pkgconf.

Overview #

oxidized-pkg-config is a fully compatible, single-binary replacement for pkg-config and pkgconf, written entirely in Rust. It provides:

  • pkgconf — a CLI binary that is a drop-in replacement for both pkg-config and pkgconf
  • libpkgconf — a Rust library crate providing the core functionality for parsing .pc files, resolving dependencies, managing compiler/linker flags, and comparing versions

The implementation is modeled after pkgconf (the modern, maintained C implementation), not the legacy freedesktop.org pkg-config. This means we follow pkgconf's architecture for the dependency graph solver, fragment handling, cross-compilation personality support, and other advanced features.

Features #

  • Full .pc file parsing with variable interpolation, line continuation, and comment handling
  • RPM-style version comparison (rpmvercmp algorithm) with tilde pre-release support
  • Dependency graph resolution with cycle detection, depth limiting, and diamond dependency deduplication
  • Fragment management with correct deduplication semantics and system directory filtering
  • Cross-compilation personalities via triplet-based configuration files
  • MSVC syntax rendering (-I → /I, -L → /LIBPATH:, -l → .lib)
  • Sysroot handling with both FDO and pkgconf1 rules
  • Prefix redefinition for relocatable packages
  • Audit logging for debugging dependency resolution
  • Full environment variable compatibility with pkg-config and pkgconf

Installation #

From source #

cargo install --path crates/pkgconf

Usage #

# Query cflags for a package
pkgconf --cflags glib-2.0

# Query linker flags
pkgconf --libs zlib

# Check if a package exists with a minimum version
pkgconf --atleast-version=1.2.8 zlib

# Print the version of a package
pkgconf --modversion openssl

# Query a specific variable
pkgconf --variable=libdir openssl

# Static linking
pkgconf --static --libs zlib

# List all known packages
pkgconf --list-all

# Output in MSVC syntax
pkgconf --msvc-syntax --cflags --libs zlib

# Dependency graph visualization (Graphviz dot format)
pkgconf --digraph gtk+-3.0

# Cross-compilation with a personality
pkgconf --personality=x86_64-w64-mingw32 --cflags zlib

# Validate .pc files
pkgconf --validate mylib

All standard pkg-config and pkgconf flags are supported. See pkgconf --help for the full list.

Testing #

# Run all tests (627 tests)
cargo test

# Run library unit tests (406 tests)
cargo test -p libpkgconf

# Run CLI integration tests (142 tests)
cargo test -p pkgconf --test integration

# Run edge case tests (69 tests)
cargo test -p pkgconf --test edge_cases

# Run benchmarks
cargo bench -p libpkgconf

# Differential testing against system pkg-config
cargo build && ./tests/differential.sh --verbose