Re: [PATCH dpdk v2 2/2] meson: add drivers to dynamic libraries

[Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2026 at 01:26:10PM +0200, Robin Jarry wrote:
> dpdk_shared_lib_deps only collects library dependencies, so DPDK built
> as a meson subproject with shared libraries never links against
> drivers that install public headers (e.g. bus/pci, bus/vdev). Add
> these drivers to dpdk_shared_lib_deps as well, mirroring what is
> already done for libraries in lib/meson.build.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Robin Jarry <rjarry@redhat.com>
> Acked-by: Bruce Richardson <bruce.richardson@intel.com>
> ---
> 
> Notes:
>     v2: added driver shared libs to the list for pkg-config
> 
>  drivers/meson.build | 4 ++++
>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/meson.build b/drivers/meson.build
> index 7146f036c4c9..0e8e69798bdf 100644
> --- a/drivers/meson.build
> +++ b/drivers/meson.build
> @@ -405,6 +405,10 @@ foreach subpath:subdirs
>                  dependencies: static_deps)
>  
>          dpdk_static_drivers += static_lib
> +        if headers.length() > 0
> +            dpdk_libraries += shared_lib
> +            dpdk_shared_lib_deps += shared_dep
> +        endif
>  
I think this changes significantly how out pkg-config files are working, vs
our original intention, so I think it actually needs more discussion.

As originally designed, when dynamically linking against DPDK the pkg-config
--libs libdpdk call was only meant to list out the libraries, with drivers
being dynamically loaded at runtime. Since drivers were never meant to have
a public API that was generally used, I believe the idea was that anyone
using driver-specific APIs was required themselves to pass the driver
explicitly to the linker. Otherwise everyone who does not use that driver
could end up (depending on their linker flags) with a dependency on that
unused driver. This change modifies that assumption and, while it makes it
easier for those using driver-specific APIs, it does change how things have
worked up till now.

On my system using a default build, this adds 33 drivers to the list of
libraries to link against when using pkg-config --libs.

/Bruce