using la files for config checks?

[Marcus Brinkmann]

Hi,

I was just looking at the *-config scripts for our library packages,
and what other solutions exist there (pkg-config), and feel that there
must be a better solution.  In particular, pkg-config only allows for
a package version constraint check, which is by libtool standards
independent of the API version.  We have an extra option --api-version
to cover that, but it is quite dumb (you need to combine it with a
package version check to get the full representation of interface
version and age).

Has anybody ever thought of writing an autoconf check for library
packages that uses the information from the .la files that are
installed by libtool, so that the user of a library can easily add a
version check for a libtoolized library (and maybe get at cflags and
ldflags if he doesn't want to use libtool himself)?  Is that useful
and/or possible?

(please CC me, I am not subscribed)

Thanks,
Marcus