> I was exploring the logging libraries as per the requirements, and I > was thinking of adding functionality to automatically check whether > the logging library is installed or not as FreeType does for other > libraries like Harfbuzz and libpng.
Not sure whether it makes sense at all to use the library as an optional feature. I would rather say it should be linked directly into FreeType, which means it should be added to FreeType as a git submodule, and eventually distributed together with FreeType (i.e., being part of the tarball). > But most of the logging libraries which I have seen till now do not > produce .pc file. This by itself is probably a bug that you should report to the library maintainers. However, if we use it as a submodule it is not a problem. > So, Is there some other way to automatically detect the metadata > about the library or do I have to use environment variables (like > HARFBUZZ_CFLAGS and HARFBUZZ_LIBS) to get metadata from the user? Have a look at the autoconf info manual. The classical way is to check for an installed header file (AC_CHECK_HEADER) and to compile a function of the library (AC_CHECK_LIB), both to be added to `configure.raw`. Calling `autogen.sh` will create `configure.ac`, which in turn is the template to create the final `configure` script. Werner