conan, pkg-config(pkg_config), meson can't find .pc files for fruit package

[roninracer]

Hi, we're using meson version 0.63 as our build system and conan 1.55 for package management.

We were successfully able to get meson to "see" the gtest package that conan pulled in, from jfrog artifactory, but attempts at getting the fruit dependency injection package to be seen has not worked.

In both the case for gtest and fruit, conan's pkg_config generator produces the .pc files in the same area.

So why would it be that meson can't find the fruit.pc file when it can find the gtest.pc file?

Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.4.2)
Found CMake: /usr/bin/cmake (3.20.2)
Run-time dependency fruit found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)
../src/meson.build:14:0: ERROR: Dependency "fruit" not found, tried pkgconfig and cmake/

I have tried to explicitly add the folder as a passed in ENV variable via the recommended method using conan as well as specifying the directory in the meson config:

    def build(self):
        """Build package using Meson."""
        meson = Meson(conanfile=self, backend="ninja", build_type=None)
        meson.configure(
            # args=None,
            # defs=None,
            # source_folder=f"{self.source_folder}/src",
            build_folder="build",
            pkg_config_paths="build",
            # cache_build_folder=None,
            # append_vcvars=False,
        )
        with tools.environment_append({"PKG_CONFIG_PATH": os.getcwd()/build}):
            meson.build(args=None, build_dir="build", targets=None)

But these didn't have the expected effect. If I remove the line specifying the fruit dependency (shown here):

project_dependencies = dependency('fruit')

the other executable I'm building that requires gtest pulls gtest in just fine using this line:

test_dependencies = dependency('gtest') 

I know my setup might be a little odd but it's strange one works but the other doesn't.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

[eli-schwartz]

Inside build_dir (seems to be the directory which is passed as the builddir to meson?) there should be a meson-logs/meson-log.txt file (the error message would print out the path) that contains a few more details on the failure, such as the exact failing pkg-config invocation and possibly some stderr as well.

[roninracer]

Thank you for responding.

Yes, I have that file, although the meson-log doesn't reveal much unfortunately:
Here's the relevant section:

Sanity check compile stderr:

-----
Running test binary command:  /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/sanitycheckcpp.exe
C++ compiler for the build machine: c++ (gcc 12.1.1 "c++ (GCC) 12.1.1 20220628 (Red Hat 12.1.1-3)")
C++ linker for the build machine: c++ ld.bfd 2.38-16
Build machine cpu family: x86_64
Build machine cpu: x86_64
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Target machine cpu family: x86_64
Target machine cpu: x86_64
Pkg-config binary for 1 is not cached.
Pkg-config binary missing from cross or native file, or env var undefined.
Trying a default Pkg-config fallback at pkg-config
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.4.2)
Determining dependency 'fruit' with pkg-config executable '/usr/bin/pkg-config'
env[PKG_CONFIG_PATH]: install/b:install/u:install/i:install/l:install/d
Called `/usr/bin/pkg-config --modversion fruit` -> 1
stderr:
Package fruit was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `fruit.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
Package 'fruit', required by 'virtual:world', not found
-----------

If I comment out that dependency line that calls out fruit, then only gtest is called (for the test executable)
I get a log like this:

The Meson build system
Version: 0.63.3
Source dir: /builds/xxxx/cpp-project
Build dir: /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build
Build type: native build
Project name: test_project
Project version: 0.1.0-0
C++ compiler for the host machine: c++ (gcc 12.1.1 "c++ (GCC) 12.1.1 20220628 (Red Hat 12.1.1-3)")
C++ linker for the host machine: c++ ld.bfd 2.38-16
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.4.2)
Run-time dependency GTest found: YES (prebuilt)
Build targets in project: 2
test_project 0.1.0-0
  User defined options
    backend        : ninja
    bindir         : bin
    buildtype      : release
    default_library: shared
    includedir     : include
    libdir         : lib
    libexecdir     : bin
    prefix         : /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/package
    sbindir        : bin
Found ninja-1.11.1.git.kitware.jobserver-1 at /usr/local/bin/ninja
ninja: Entering directory `build'
[1/5] Compiling C++ object test_project.p/src_math.cpp.o
[2/5] Compiling C++ object test_project.p/src_main.cpp.o
[3/5] Linking target test_project
[4/5] Compiling C++ object DEV-TESTS.p/tests_test.cpp.o
[5/5] Linking target DEV-TESTS
Uploading artifacts for successful job

As you can see here, the .pc files (generated by conan's pkg_config) are all in the same path:

Artifacts
build
Name	Size
 ..	
 build	
 _boost_cmake.pc	386 Bytes
 _libboost.pc	397 Bytes
 boost.pc	443 Bytes
 boost_atomic.pc	406 Bytes
 boost_chrono.pc	419 Bytes
 boost_container.pc	415 Bytes
 boost_context.pc	409 Bytes
 boost_contract.pc	441 Bytes
 boost_coroutine.pc	458 Bytes
 boost_date_time.pc	415 Bytes
 boost_diagnostic_definitions.pc	402 Bytes
 boost_disable_autolinking.pc	396 Bytes
 boost_dynamic_linking.pc	388 Bytes
 boost_exception.pc	415 Bytes
 boost_fiber.pc	434 Bytes
 boost_fiber_numa.pc	430 Bytes
 boost_filesystem.pc	444 Bytes
 boost_graph.pc	459 Bytes
 boost_iostreams.pc	451 Bytes
 boost_json.pc	429 Bytes
 boost_locale.pc	419 Bytes
 boost_log.pc	526 Bytes
 boost_log_setup.pc	425 Bytes
 boost_math.pc	386 Bytes
 boost_math_c99.pc	423 Bytes
 boost_math_c99f.pc	426 Bytes
 boost_math_c99l.pc	426 Bytes
 boost_math_tr1.pc	423 Bytes
 boost_math_tr1f.pc	426 Bytes
 boost_math_tr1l.pc	426 Bytes
 boost_nowide.pc	423 Bytes
 boost_prg_exec_monitor.pc	447 Bytes
 boost_program_options.pc	433 Bytes
 boost_random.pc	419 Bytes
 boost_regex.pc	403 Bytes
 boost_serialization.pc	427 Bytes
 boost_stacktrace.pc	398 Bytes
 boost_stacktrace_addr2line.pc	565 Bytes
 boost_stacktrace_backtrace.pc	517 Bytes
 boost_stacktrace_basic.pc	459 Bytes
 boost_stacktrace_noop.pc	478 Bytes
 boost_system.pc	390 Bytes
 boost_test.pc	402 Bytes
 boost_test_exec_monitor.pc	450 Bytes
 boost_thread.pc	493 Bytes
 boost_timer.pc	429 Bytes
 boost_type_erasure.pc	437 Bytes
 boost_unit_test_framework.pc	503 Bytes
 boost_wave.pc	437 Bytes
 boost_wserialization.pc	450 Bytes
 bzip2.pc	426 Bytes
 conan.lock	5.57 KB
 conanbuildinfo.txt	11.7 KB
 conaninfo.txt	330 Bytes
 fruit.pc	386 Bytes
 gmock.pc	381 Bytes
 gmock_main.pc	396 Bytes
 graph_info.json	127 Bytes
 gtest.pc	381 Bytes
 gtest_main.pc	396 Bytes
 libbacktrace.pc	446 Bytes
 zlib.pc

So it's strange that fruit doesn't get seen but gtest does. By the way not that this should matter, but I'm doing this in gitlab ci so shell access is not available to me.

In the meson-log file it is concerning to me that the ENV for the PKG_CONFIG_PATH only shows a bunch of "install" directories. So I'm not sure if that's the issue or not since if that were the case it would likely affect gtest as well.

[eli-schwartz]

Yes, I have that file, although the meson-log doesn't reveal much unfortunately:

Sure it does, it reveals the PKG_CONFIG_PATH. :)

In the meson-log file it is concerning to me that the ENV for the PKG_CONFIG_PATH only shows a bunch of "install" directories. So I'm not sure if that's the issue or not since if that were the case it would likely affect gtest as well.

It concerns me too... greatly.

Do you have gtest installed to /usr/lib ? The meson-log.txt for that successful run would indicate where that got picked up from -- if it just says e.g. -DGTEST_HAS_PTHREAD=1 -lgtest -lpthread then pkg-config has removed -I/usr/include -L/usr/lib as "default for the compiler toolchain", if it points to -I/builds/... -L/builds/... then it picked up that one...

I wonder if this is an API error?

install/b:install/u:install/i:install/l:install/d

Note a weird pattern here: for each character in list("build") -> ['b', 'u', 'i', 'l', 'd'], there is install/<char> in the PKG_CONFIG_PATH.

pkg_config_paths="build",

Is this API supposed to take a list, and assuming it got one via for elem in pkg_config_paths?

[roninracer]

I wonder if this is an API error?

install/b:install/u:install/i:install/l:install/d
Note a weird pattern here: for each character in list("build") -> ['b', 'u', 'i', 'l', 'd'], there is install/ in the PKG_CONFIG_PATH.

pkg_config_paths="build",
Is this API supposed to take a list, and assuming it got one via for elem in pkg_config_paths?

Wow great catch there! I will revert that change to see if it changes things, but I'm not confident it will since the problem was happening before I made that change.

Sure enough that pattern wasn't there when I made the following changes:

    def build(self):
        """Build package using Meson."""
        meson = Meson(conanfile=self, backend="ninja", build_type=None)
        meson.configure(
            # args=None,
            # defs=None,
            # source_folder=f"{self.source_folder}/src",
            build_folder='build',
            pkg_config_paths='',
            # cache_build_folder=None,
            # append_vcvars=False,
        )
        with tools.environment_append({"PKG_CONFIG_PATH": os.getcwd()/build}):
            meson.build(args=None, build_dir="build", targets=None)

From the meson-log:

-----
Running test binary command:  /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/sanitycheckcpp.exe
C++ compiler for the build machine: c++ (gcc 12.1.1 "c++ (GCC) 12.1.1 20220628 (Red Hat 12.1.1-3)")
C++ linker for the build machine: c++ ld.bfd 2.38-16
Build machine cpu family: x86_64
Build machine cpu: x86_64
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Target machine cpu family: x86_64
Target machine cpu: x86_64
Pkg-config binary for 1 is not cached.
Pkg-config binary missing from cross or native file, or env var undefined.
Trying a default Pkg-config fallback at pkg-config
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.4.2)
Determining dependency 'fruit' with pkg-config executable '/usr/bin/pkg-config'
env[PKG_CONFIG_PATH]: install
Called `/usr/bin/pkg-config --modversion fruit` -> 1
stderr:
Package fruit was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `fruit.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
Package 'fruit', required by 'virtual:world', not found
-----------

So it seems it's defaulting to 'install' for the path?

I'll run a build without the fruit dependency to compare.

[roninracer]

So what I found was that it was cmake finding the gtest package and pkg-config was not able to see it (the same as fruit.
So I guess the real question now is how to configure meson to set the path properly for pkg-config to pull in all the .pc files?

-----
Sanity check compile stderr:

-----
Running test binary command:  /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/sanitycheckcpp.exe
C++ compiler for the build machine: c++ (gcc 12.1.1 "c++ (GCC) 12.1.1 20220628 (Red Hat 12.1.1-3)")
C++ linker for the build machine: c++ ld.bfd 2.38-16
Build machine cpu family: x86_64
Build machine cpu: x86_64
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Target machine cpu family: x86_64
Target machine cpu: x86_64
Adding test "basic"
Pkg-config binary for 1 is not cached.
Pkg-config binary missing from cross or native file, or env var undefined.
Trying a default Pkg-config fallback at pkg-config
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.4.2)
Determining dependency 'gtest' with pkg-config executable '/usr/bin/pkg-config'
env[PKG_CONFIG_PATH]: install
Called `/usr/bin/pkg-config --modversion gtest` -> 1
stderr:
Package gtest was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtest.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
Package 'gtest', required by 'virtual:world', not found
-----------
Running compile:
Working directory:  /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpyskm7yxl
Command line:  c++ -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/gtest/1.13.0/_/_/package/8bb4450e34d21c0a04f69e954781f3dc40d95e99/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/fruit/3.7.0/_/_/package/f3b391ee0f4932105cc940337e1f53416425f87c/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/boost/1.80.0/_/_/package/83fcf0af66d2d8b7b7d60ef6c249b03c5b0dc744/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.13/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/bzip2/1.0.8/_/_/package/3cfc45772763dad1237052f26c1fe8b2bae3f7d2/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/libbacktrace/cci.20210118/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/lib -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/gtest/1.13.0/_/_/package/8bb4450e34d21c0a04f69e954781f3dc40d95e99/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/fruit/3.7.0/_/_/package/f3b391ee0f4932105cc940337e1f53416425f87c/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/boost/1.80.0/_/_/package/83fcf0af66d2d8b7b7d60ef6c249b03c5b0dc744/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.13/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/bzip2/1.0.8/_/_/package/3cfc45772763dad1237052f26c1fe8b2bae3f7d2/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/libbacktrace/cci.20210118/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/include /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpyskm7yxl/testfile.cpp -o /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpyskm7yxl/output.exe -O3 -s -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_ADDR2LINE_LOCATION=/usr/bin/addr2line -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_ADDR2LINE -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_BACKTRACE -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_NOOP -DNDEBUG -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -O0 -fpermissive -Wl,--start-group -lgtest -Wl,--end-group -Wl,--allow-shlib-undefined 

Code:
 int main(void) { return 0; }

Compiler stdout:
 
Compiler stderr:
 
Running compile:
Working directory:  /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpfqn5xjqm
Command line:  c++ -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/gtest/1.13.0/_/_/package/8bb4450e34d21c0a04f69e954781f3dc40d95e99/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/fruit/3.7.0/_/_/package/f3b391ee0f4932105cc940337e1f53416425f87c/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/boost/1.80.0/_/_/package/83fcf0af66d2d8b7b7d60ef6c249b03c5b0dc744/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.13/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/bzip2/1.0.8/_/_/package/3cfc45772763dad1237052f26c1fe8b2bae3f7d2/lib -L/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/libbacktrace/cci.20210118/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/lib -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/gtest/1.13.0/_/_/package/8bb4450e34d21c0a04f69e954781f3dc40d95e99/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/fruit/3.7.0/_/_/package/f3b391ee0f4932105cc940337e1f53416425f87c/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/boost/1.80.0/_/_/package/83fcf0af66d2d8b7b7d60ef6c249b03c5b0dc744/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/zlib/1.2.13/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/bzip2/1.0.8/_/_/package/3cfc45772763dad1237052f26c1fe8b2bae3f7d2/include -I/builds/xxxx/cpp-project/.conan/data/libbacktrace/cci.20210118/_/_/package/2a19826344ff00be1c04403f2f8e7008ed3a7cc6/include /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpfqn5xjqm/testfile.cpp -o /builds/xxxx/cpp-project/build/build/meson-private/tmpfqn5xjqm/output.exe -O3 -s -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_ADDR2LINE_LOCATION=/usr/bin/addr2line -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_ADDR2LINE -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_BACKTRACE -DBOOST_STACKTRACE_USE_NOOP -DNDEBUG -D_GLIBCXX_USE_CXX11_ABI=1 -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -O0 -fpermissive -Wl,--start-group -lgtest_main -Wl,--end-group -Wl,--allow-shlib-undefined 

Code:
 int main(void) { return 0; }

Compiler stdout:
 
Compiler stderr:
 
Run-time dependency GTest found: YES (prebuilt)
Adding test "test"
Build targets in project: 2