Question

I have the following Makefile.am inside ./src where I need to generate dependencies for a gtkmm application.

bin_PROGRAMS = sampleapplication
sampleapplication_SOURCES = exampleapplication.cpp examplewindow.cpp main.cpp
sampleapplication_INCLUDES = ../include/exampleapplication.h ../include/examplewindow.h
sampleapplication_LDADD = $(DEPS_LIBS)

make_flags=`pkg-config gtkmm-3.0 --cflags --libs`
AM_CPPFLAGS = ${make_flags} -I$(top_srcdir)/include

However when I run this command all I see echoed to the screen when this command is run is:

g++ -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I..  `pkg-config gtkmm-3.0 --cflags --libs` -I../include   -g -O2 -MT exampleapplication.o -MD -MP -MF .deps/exampleapplication.Tpo -c -o exampleapplication.o exampleapplication.cpp
In file included from /usr/include/gtk-3.0/gtk/gtk.h:43:0,
                 from /usr/include/gtkmm-3.0/gtkmm/buildable.h:29,

Which does not expand out the way I want it. What is the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

pkg-config includes useful autoconf macros, which are described on the man page. In configure.ac use something like:

PKG_CHECK_MODULES([GTKMM], [gtkmm-3.0])

You now have GTKMM_CFLAGS, GTKMM_LIBS available for substitution in Makefile.am files.