Tracking pkg-config info

[Ericson2314]

I've long wanted a way to map pkg-config name to OS package that provide it. This seems close to what Repology is doing. Would it make sense to extend Repology with this functionality?

[AMDmi3]

Not sure how it can be done with big enough coverage to be useful. Repology does not work with package contents it could get info on pkgconfig file names from. Some repositories may contain list of files installed by packages we could look into, but I don't think there are many repositories like that. Will check tomorrow though.

[Ericson2314]

Thanks for offering to check. I would be happy to propose add the requisite metadata to Nixpkgs if that helps you. (I am a Nixpkgs maintainer.)

[AMDmi3]

Well I've grepped gdk-pixbuf-2.0.pc in all text format repositories data and all I've got is adelie/alpine and macports using pkgconfig names as dependencies. Unfortunately we can't work with that.

I would be happy to propose add the requisite metadata to Nixpkgs if that helps you. (I am a Nixpkgs maintainer.)

If you propose to publish pkgconfig names for nix (and I suppose use these to map pkgconfig files to package names for all other repos), that should be easy to implement in repology.

[Ericson2314]

Thanks for the quick response, and willingness to "bootstrap" off just one distro's metadata!

[Artturin]

Fedora allows its packages to depend on pc files https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/packaging-guidelines/PkgConfigBuildRequires/

Though the only way they declare what pc file a package provides is https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/libproxy/blob/rawhide/f/libproxy.spec#_206

[Artturin]

We now have https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/pkg-config/pkg-config-data.json by @roberth

[roberth]

We might want to iterate on the format, but Nixpkgs has at least made a start with this.

[AMDmi3]

The main requirement is for it to be in the same file with other package info.

[Ericson2314]

@AMDmi3 what file is that? I do not know how Repology gets info from Nixpkgs today.

[Ericson2314]

Ah, I found it it. https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/top-level/make-tarball.nix#L64-L71

[Ericson2314]

OK since NixOS/nixpkgs#214304 we have

 $ nix-env -qaP -f . -A zlib --json --meta | jq
{
  "zlib": {
    "name": "zlib-1.2.13",
    ...
    "meta": {
      ...
      "pkgConfigModules": [
        "zlib"
      ],
  },
  ...
}

And hopefully by the time Repology ingests this (as part ofthe package.json) there will be more packages than zlib with this metadata :).

[Ericson2314]

NixOS/nixpkgs#215056 Put up a PR marking a few more. Also made an Nixpkgs announcement in https://discourse.nixos.org/t/adding-pkg-config-metadata-to-nixpkgs-packages/25281 .

[AMDmi3]

Is this not yet in packages-unstable.json?

[Ericson2314]

Hehe you move quick :) Yeah nixpkgs-unstable.json is regenerated only periodically, so it might not be in there yet.

[Ericson2314]

I am investigating

[Ericson2314]

Actually I do see it

cat /nix/store/1c50winfp4gri15d4zh3fv9f4jx64g02-nixpkgs-tarball-23.05pre452319.747927516ef/packages.json.br \
  | brotli -d \
  | jq '.packages.zlib.meta.pkgConfigModules'

[
  "zlib"
]

from https://hydra.nixos.org/build/208234249#tabs-summary in the most recent eval.

[Ericson2314]

https://channels.nixos.org/nixos-unstable-small is quick enough to have it

curl https://releases.nixos.org/nixos/unstable-small/nixos-23.05pre452282.b6eac37960e/packages.json.br \
  | brotli -d \
  | jq '.packages.zlib.meta.pkgConfigModules'

[Ericson2314]

OK https://channels.nixos.org/nixpkgs-unstable has updated, and now has at least the zlib pkgConfigModules metadata!

[AMDmi3]

I've seen, thank you. Backend code is already done.

[Ericson2314]

You're wonderfully on top of things! :) Impressive!

[Ericson2314]

@AMDmi3 Sorry to prod, but did this go live yet?

[AMDmi3]

Not yet. Sorry, ENOTIME at the moment.

[Ericson2314]

OK. Thanks for letting me know. Let me know if there is something I can do to help.

[Ericson2314]

Hi, checking in on this again :)

[Artturin]

Ping

[AMDmi3]

ENOTIME for it

[Ericson2314]

Oh just saw your reply. Is there any way some could do this for you without making it just as much work on your end?