[Linux] Dynamically link to system libraries, such as gtk4/webkitgtk?

[happystraw]

Thanks to the SPC team for providing such powerful tool!

I have developed a PHP extension happystraw/php-ext-webview, which is used to build simple cross-platform desktop applications.

On Windows and macOS, the extension uses the system’s built-in Webview component, while on Linux it depends on gtk/webkit2gtk.

With the following configuration and using SPC to build, both cli/micro work perfectly on Windows and macOS.

config

// config/ext.json
{
    // ...
    {
        "webview": {
        "type": "external",
        "source": "webview",
        "frameworks": [
            "WebKit"
        ],
        "cpp-extension": true
    },
    // ...
}

// config/sources.json
{
  // ...
  {
    "type": "git",
    "path": "php-src/ext/webview",
    "rev": "dev",
    "url": "https://github.com/happystraw/php-ext-webview",
    "license": {
      "type": "file",
        "path": "LICENSE"
      }
  }
  // ...
}

However, on Linux, gtk/webkit2gtk is either unsuitable or very difficult to compile as a static library. Currently, SPC uses its own pkg-config tool and restricts the PKG_CONFIG_PATH, so it cannot find the system-level pkg-config file for webkit2gtk, resulting in a build failure.

I would like to ask if there is any way to solve this problem with the current SPC? Or could future versions consider supporting linking to other libraries, such as gtk/webkit2gtk?

Thanks.

[henderkes]

Please try the referenced PR and set PKG_CONFIG_PATH to your system pkgconfig path.

Please keep in mind that this may make libraries link to other system libraries like x11 too, when available, perhaps introducing another runtime dependency that you didn't expect.

As an alternative, you can simply use spc as it is right now, but manually copy the *.pc files you want into buildroot/lib/pkgconfig before building a second time.

[happystraw]

Combined with SPC_EXTRA_LIBS, it can be built.

Thanks