dpkg-cross and -config scripts, (e.g. libusb-config)

[Phil Endecott <phil_sijwi_endecott@chezphil.org>]

Dear All,

I am trying to cross-compile a program that uses libusb.  I have
installed a dpkg-cross'd version of libusb for this program to build
against and it mostly works.

The difficulty is that the program's configure script calls the
libusb-config script (eg "libusb-config --libs"), but that was removed
from the .deb by dpkg-cross.  (And even if it hadn't been removed I
guess that it would have reported wrong paths.)  It instead picks up my
native libusb-config and returns "-L/usr/lib -lusb".

I notice that libusb-dev includes a pkg-config .pc file, and "pkg-config
--libs libusb" returns "-lusb".  This .pc file is transformed and
retained in the .deb by dpkg-cross so
"PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/armeb-linux/lib/pkgconfig pkg-config --libs
libusb" returns "-L/usr/armeb-linux/lib -lusb".

libusb-config is a self-contained script, not an indirection to pkg-config.

So, I wonder how best to sort this out.  Perhaps dpkg-cross could
transform libusb-config; it would work if it just replaced /usr/lib with
/usr/armeb-linux/lib.  Perhaps I could replace libusb-config with an
indirection of some sort to pkg-config.

I imagine that this sort of thing is quite common; how has/would anyone
else work around it?


FYI the program I'm trying to build is libftdi, from
http://www.intra2net.com/opensource/ftdi/.


Regards,

--Phil.