Alien::pkgconf(3)

💖 Alien::pkgconf 💖

okay bestie, so this is Alien::pkgconf, and it lives in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section (section 3, iykyk — that's the C-library-adjacent corner of the man pages 🫶).

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✨ NAME ✨

Alien::pkgconf — it discovers pkgconf + libpkgconf for you, or straight up downloads and installs them if your system is being uncooperative 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

use Alien::pkgconf;

my $cflags = Alien::pkgconf->cflags;
my $libs   = Alien::pkgconf->libs;

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe check. 🌈

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So this module hands you everything you need to either invoke pkgconf or link against libpkgconf. Easy.

But listen — it is not meant to be used directly by you, gorgeous. It's meant to be the behind-the-scenes supplier for a CPAN module that needs libpkgconf, like PkgConfig::LibPkgConf. It's giving backstage crew, not main character. 😌

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👑 METHODS 👑

cflags

my $cflags = Alien::pkgconf->cflags;

The compiler flags for compiling against libpkgconf. Slap these on your compiler and go ✨

libs

my $libs = Alien::pkgconf->libs;

The linker flags for linking against libpkgconf. Chef's kiss for your link step 🔥

dynamic_libs

my($dll) = Alien::pkgconf->dynamic_libs;

The .so, .dll or .dynlib shared/dynamic library — the one you'd use via FFI. no cap. 💫

version

my $version = Alien::pkgconf->version;

The libpkgconf version. literally just that. 🎀

bin_dir

my($dir) = Alien::pkgconf->bin_dir;

The directory where you can find pkgconf — that's for when it's not already chillin' in your PATH. Drop this into PATH and suddenly tools that require pkgconf just… work. iconic behavior fr fr. 🫶

install_type

my $type = Alien::pkgconf->install_type;

The type of install. Should be either "share" or "system". That's the whole menu bestie 🌸

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🧚 HELPERS 🧚

pkgconf

%{pkgconf}

The name of the pkgconf binary. Usually it's just pkgconf. humble. understated. we love her. 💜

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

• PkgConfig::LibPkgConf — go look, bestie 👀

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💀 PLATFORM NOTES 💀

Solaris

ngl you may need the GNU version of nm installed, which ships with GNU binutils. not me having to say that in 2025 😭 but here we are.

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🌟 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 🌟

Huge huge thanks to the pkgconf developers for their efforts, fr fr:

<https://github.com/pkgconf/pkgconf/graphs/contributors>

go send them some love 💖

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Graham Ollis

Contributors:

• Thibault Duponchelle (tib)

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💅 COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE 💅

This software is copyright (c) 2016 Graham Ollis.

This is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. so like, go wild (respectfully) 🫶

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this was perl v5.42.0, dated 2025-08-12 — you're all caught up, go compile something gorgeous ✨🌸