The `pkg-config` command doesn't find the `bcm_host` package. How can I add the `.pc` files from `/opt/vc/lib/pkgconfig` to pkg-config?

Question

I am running a raspberry pi 3B (V 1.2). I am using the proprietary OpenGLES driver (Broadcom). I have just run a full apt upgrade.

I am trying to build SDL2 and I noticed that while it was being configured that the brcm_host packages weren't being found. I looked around and found that the appropriate .pc files are found in /opt/vc/lib/pkgconfig, but when I run pkg-config --list-all the packages aren't found. I have looked around to see what might be going on and have seen some answers regarding setting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH, which doesn't seem to be set on my system. Is there a way to reset the paths that pkg-config looks in for .pc files?

To try and fix this I have tried to reinstall the raspberrypi-dev packages (sudo apt install --reinstall libraspberrypi-dev libraspberrypi0) and the package-config package (sudo apt install pkg-config --reinstall pkg-config, but this hasn't fixed the problem.

Thanks!

Answer 1

As pointed out in the comment by @tttapa, the best solution to my problem here is to add the directory containing the package config files using the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable. I added this to my .profile file and it has worked well for me.

I think that this is the best solution, because I see now that adding them by default could mess up switching between the different OpenGL implementations.