pkgconfig

pkgconfig is a Python module to interface with the pkg-config command-line tool for Python 3.9+.

The pkg-config command-line tool typically comes from a package either called pkg-config (the original implementation) or pkgconf (a more recent, improved reimplementation intended as a drop-in replacement).

The pkgconfig module can be used to

find all pkg-config packages
```
>>> packages = pkgconfig.list_all()
```
check if a package exists
```
>>> pkgconfig.exists('glib-2.0')
True
```
check if a package meets certain version requirements
```
>>> pkgconfig.installed('glib-2.0', '< 2.26')
False
```

return the version

>>> pkgconfig.modversion('glib-2.0')
'2.56.3'

query CFLAGS and LDFLAGS

>>> pkgconfig.cflags('glib-2.0')
'-I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include'

>>> pkgconfig.libs('glib-2.0')
'-lglib-2.0'

get all variables defined for a package:

>>> pkgconfig.variables('glib-2.0')
{u'exec_prefix': u'/usr'}

parse the output to build extensions with setup.py

>>> d = pkgconfig.parse('glib-2.0 gtk+-2.0')
>>> d['libraries']
[u'gtk+-2.0', u'glib-2.0']

>>> ext = Extension('foo', ['foo.c'])
>>> # sets extension attributes as needed
>>> pkgconfig.configure_extension(ext, 'glib-2.0 gtk+-2.0')

The pkgconfig.parse function returns a dictionary of lists. The lists returned are accurate representations of the equivalent pkg-config call’s results, both in content and order.

If pkg-config is not on the PATH, an EnvironmentError is raised.

The pkgconfig module is licensed under the MIT license.

Changelog

Version 1.6.0

Drop support for Python < 3.9, support 3.9 .. 3.14.
README: clarify pkg-config and pkgconf, #75
Switch CI from Travis to GitHub Actions; test on all supported Python versions.
Use src/ layout for project, fixes #36. Also move tests and test data to tests/.
Replace deprecated distutils with setuptools to make tests work on Python 3.12; fixes #64.
Fix configure_extension for empty cflags or libs.

Version 1.5.5

Make tests more robust by sorting.

Version 1.5.4

Adjust pyproject.toml and drop Python 2 support

Version 1.5.3

Add configure_extension API

Version 1.5.2

Update poetry dependency
Improve CI

Version 1.5.0

Use poetry instead of setuptools directly
Fix #42: raise exception if package is missing
Fix version parsing for openssl-like version numbers, fixes #32
Fix #31: expose –modversion
Fix #30: strip whitespace from variable names

Version 1.4.0

Add boolean static keyword to output private libraries as well
Raise original OSError as well

Version 1.3.1

Fix compatibility problems with Python 2.6

Version 1.3.0

Add variables() API to query defined variables
Disable Python 3.2 and enable Python 3.5 and 3.6 tests
Fix #16: handle spaces of values in .pc files correctly

Version 1.2.1 and 1.2.2

Bugfix releases on December 1 and 2, 2016.

Include the data folder in the distribution in order to run tests
Improve the tests

Version 1.2.0

Released on November 30th, 2016.

Potential break: switch from result set to list
Expose the –list-all query
Added support for the PKG_CONFIG environment variable

Version 1.1.0

Released on November 6th, 2013.

Multiple packages can now be parsed with a single call to .parse.

Version 1.0.0

First release on September 8th, 2013.

Release files for pkgconfig 1.6.0

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for pkgconfig 1.6.0
File	Size	Uploaded
pkgconfig-1.6.0.tar.gz	5.7 kB	Mar 6, 2026	Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for pkgconfig 1.6.0
File	Interpreter	ABI	Platform	Reset
pkgconfig-1.6.0-py3-none-any.whl 7.1 kB Mar 6, 2026	Python 3	none	any	Details

Total release size: 12.8 kB

Release files / pkgconfig-1.6.0.tar.gz

Download URL	pkgconfig-1.6.0.tar.gz
Size	5.7 kB
Tags	Source
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`4a5a6631ce937fafac457104a40d558785a658bbdca5c49b6295bc3fd651907f`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`52fd0adde075cd3bfecd557bc7d757e00e231d34d8a6edb4c8d1642759254c21`
Upload date	Mar 6, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.3`

Release files / pkgconfig-1.6.0-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL	pkgconfig-1.6.0-py3-none-any.whl
Size	7.1 kB
Tags	Python 3
SHA-256 checksum How to use checksums	`98e71754855e9563838d952a160eb577edabb57782e49853edb5381927e6bea1`
BLAKE2b-256 checksum How to use checksums	`756ff7ec07fba48f07c555cc4099481df644fbbc12067879072c17ac229f6556`
Upload date	Mar 6, 2026
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing? What is trusted publishing?	No
Uploaded via	`twine/6.2.0 CPython/3.14.3`