.PC File Extension
Pkg-config Configuration File
| Developer | Freedesktop.org |
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A PC file may also be a metadata file used by pkg-config, a helper tool used when compiling applications and libraries. It contains information about a code library, such as the library's name, description, URL, version, and dependencies. PC files are also referred to as pkg-config files.
More Information
Pkg-config is a free tool that helps developers check for the existence of requisite libraries while compiling applications. If the library exists, developers can use pkg-config to include the library in the compiled application. Developers can also use pkg-config to retrieve information about the library.
The information pkg-config retrieves is stored in PC files. These files are plain text files that are saved alongside the library they describe. Packages that contain multiple libraries include multiple PC files, one for each library.
Each PC file may contain information about a library's name, description, URL, version, dependencies (both public and private), conflicts, compiler flags, and link flags (both public and private). Ir may also include freeform variables, which most commonly define installation paths.
NOTE: PC files are typically named for their corresponding code library. For example, a library named FileInfo.so would use a PC file named FileInfo.pc.
How to open a PC file
You can open and edit a PC file in any text editor, such as Microsoft Notepad (Windows), Apple TextEdit (Mac), or GitHub Atom (cross-platform).
To use a PC file with pkg-config (cross-platform) reference the file as part of the pkg-config command. For example, you could use the command pkg-config --modversion FileInfo to retrieve version information stored in FileInfo.pc.