Adding pkg-config not provided by upstream when packaging a library?

[Eric Smith <spacewar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Because a new version of the Free42 calculator has switched to the Intel decimal floating point library (an implementation of the decimal part of IEEE-754), I'm working on packaging it:

    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1098820

Intel supplies it as portable code intended to be linked directly with an application, and builds and tests all 16 combinations of four binary compile-time options, with the name of the resulting library based on the values of those options.  It is essential that the program making use of the library use the correct defines to match the specific library variant being used.

When I've packaged other libraries for Fedora that didn't include pkg-config files, it seemed desirable to add them.  However, in this case Michael Schwendt commented in the package review that I "am adding to the API here", and that it "results in incompatibilities".

Since there are sixteen variants of the library, I am providing sixteen corresponding pkg-config files.  When another program uses the library, by using pkg-config in their Makefile (or other build system), it will ensure that they are getting the right C preprocessor defines for the chosen library variant.

I don't really understand how this is "adding to the API" or results in incompatibilities.  Do other people think that doing this is a mistake?  Would it actually be better for the package not to provide pkg-config files?

Thanks!
Eric

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