Re: [Hamlib-developer] pkg-config 0.29.1 vs 0.29.2

[Nate B. <n0...@n0...>]

* On 2025 20 Nov 13:27 -0600, Uwe, DG2YCB via Hamlib-developer wrote:
> Dear Hamlib developers,
> 
> I noticed that the newest Hamlib source code can no longer be built on Linux
> Mint 20.3 because pkg-config 0.29.2 has been specified in configure.ac as
> the minimum version (see the following lines).
> 
> dnl Ensure that the PKG_PREREQ macro is defined:
> m4_ifndef([PKG_PREREQ],
>     [m4_fatal([must install pkg-config (or pkgconf) 0.29.2 or later before
> running bootstrap])])
> 
> PKG_PREREQ([0.29.2])
> PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([0.29.2])
> 
> However, I found out that Hamlib still builds fine when I change this to
> pkg-config 0.29.1, and that WSJT-X (Improved) works well with such a Hamlib
> build in Mint 20.3.
> 
> So my question is. Is there a specific reason why the pkg-config
> specification has been changed to 0.29.2?

As I worked on FreeBSD build support, pkg-config became the easiest and
most reliable way to handle the FreeBSD path differences from GNU.  It
quickly became apparent that pkg-config is no longer maintained as
0.29.2 is the last release from March 2017.  It has been supplanted by
pkgconf which is actively developed.

> I mean, I now know how to work around this, but in case it is just a
> self-imposed hurdle, could this perhaps be set to 0.29.1?

It appears that 0.29.2 fixes some bugs:

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pkg-config/pkg-config/-/raw/master/NEWS?ref_type=heads

Perhaps these aren't relevant to building Hamlib on GNU based systems,
but I've not tested on FreeBSD, although the VM I used has a far more
recent version of pkgconf with pkg-config nowhere to be found.

> FYI: I still need my old Mint 20.3 system from time to time to create Debian
> packages of WSJT-X (Improved) for OMs who cannot handle my usual packages
> which are compiled on the latest Mint 22.2 system.

Mint 20 support ended in April 2025 so security updates are no longer
available.  I understand that in some cases this is not a priority,
especially on a system that isn't connected to a network or other
considerations.

I'm reluctant to change the minimum version as 0.29.2 is already nearing
nine years of age and is the last release of that project.  Perhaps a
simple script to call sed to replace the 2 with a 1 would work and do
the Hamlib build.  That would only need to be done on the Mint 20
system.

73, Nate

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