# CMake unable to check existing PkgConfig modules
**URL:** https://discourse.cmake.org/t/cmake-unable-to-check-existing-pkgconfig-modules/7121
**Category:** Usage
**Created:** [December 23, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/cmake-unable-to-check-existing-pkgconfig-modules/7121 "2022-12-23T05:00:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@michael.k](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/michael.k)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2022, 5:00am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/cmake-unable-to-check-existing-pkgconfig-modules/7121/1 "2022-12-23T05:00:00Z")
I tried to add dpdk libraries to my test application, and, almost everything related PkgConfig went wrong.
At moment i have:
- Arch
- Clion IDE
- CMake 3.24
- dpdk 22.0
CMakeLists.txt is very simple helloworld-like application
```auto
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
project(test-dpdk)
find_package(PkgConfig)
pkg_check_modules(DPDK REQUIRED libdpdk)
add_executable(server main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(server PRIVATE PkgConfig::DPDK)
```
Which gives me following output:
```auto
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 12.1.0
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Found PkgConfig: /usr/bin/pkg-config (found version "1.8.0")
-- Checking for module 'libdpdk'
-- Package 'libdpdk', required by 'virtual:world', not found
CMake Error at /app/extra/clion/bin/cmake/linux/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:607 (message):
A required package was not found
Call Stack (most recent call first):
/app/extra/clion/bin/cmake/linux/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:829 (_pkg_check_modules_internal)
CMakeLists.txt:10 (pkg_check_modules)
```
I checked that pkg-config itself knows where are libraries located:
```auto
> pkg-config --libs libdpdk
-Wl,--as-needed -lrte_node -lrte_graph -lrte_flow_classify -lrte_pipeline -lrte_table -lrte_pdump -lrte_port -lrte_fib -lrte_ipsec -lrte_vhost -lrte_stack -lrte_security -lrte_sched -lrte_reorder -lrte_rib -lrte_dmadev -lrte_regexdev -lrte_rawdev -lrte_power -lrte_pcapng -lrte_member -lrte_lpm -lrte_latencystats -lrte_kni -lrte_jobstats -lrte_ip_frag -lrte_gso -lrte_gro -lrte_gpudev -lrte_eventdev -lrte_efd -lrte_distributor -lrte_cryptodev -lrte_compressdev -lrte_cfgfile -lrte_bpf -lrte_bitratestats -lrte_bbdev -lrte_acl -lrte_timer -lrte_hash -lrte_metrics -lrte_cmdline -lrte_pci -lrte_ethdev -lrte_meter -lrte_net -lrte_mbuf -lrte_mempool -lrte_rcu -lrte_ring -lrte_eal -lrte_telemetry -lrte_kvargs -lbsd
> pkg-config --modversion libdpdk
22.07.0
> pkg-config --path libdpdk
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/libdpdk.pc
```
Contents of a libdpdk.pc are fine and correct.
After a while i realized that setting up PKG\_CONFIG\_PATH ENV variable may help, but, unfortunately it had no effect.
CLion CMake debugger led to FindPkgConfig.cmake:588 execute\_process (with a `pkg-config --print-errors --short-errors --exists libdpdk` query) which resulted an error, but, if manually executed via terminal it returns success.
So, the questions is how to force PkgConfig to pick libraries (installed system-wide) from CMakeLists? Are there any obvious things i forgot? Is it a bug?
Thanks in advance.
**UPD**
Calling CMake directly resolves issue, so, it may be caused by IDE and ENV collisions, not a CMake. Thanks for an attention 😅
---
### Author:  [@Dakon](https://discourse.cmake.org/u/Dakon)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2022, 4:53am UTC](https://discourse.cmake.org/t/cmake-unable-to-check-existing-pkgconfig-modules/7121/2 "2022-12-30T04:53:48Z")
> I tried to add dpdk libraries to my test application, and, almost everything
> related PkgConfig went wrong.
>
> At moment i have:
>
> - Arch
> - Clion IDE
> - CMake 3.24
> - dpdk 22.0
>
> CMakeLists.txt is very simple helloworld-like application
>
> ```auto
> cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.24)
>
> project(test-dpdk)
>
> find_package(PkgConfig)
> pkg_check_modules(DPDK REQUIRED libdpdk)
>
> ```
This is missing IMPORTED\_TARGET if you want to use the target below, but that
is unrelated to the problems you are seeing.
> add\_executable(server main.cpp)
> target\_link\_libraries(server PRIVATE PkgConfig::DPDK)
>
> ```auto
> Which gives me following output:
>
> ```
>
> – Checking for module ‘libdpdk’
> – Package ‘libdpdk’, required by ‘virtual:world’, not found
> CMake Error at
> /app/extra/clion/bin/cmake/linux/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cma
> ke:607 (message): A required package was not found
> Call Stack (most recent call first):
> /app/extra/clion/bin/cmake/linux/share/cmake-3.24/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cma
> ke:829 (\_pkg\_check\_modules\_internal) CMakeLists.txt:10 (pkg\_check\_modules)
>
> ```auto
> I checked that pkg-config itself knows where are libraries located:
>
> ```
> CLion CMake debugger led to FindPkgConfig.cmake:588 execute\_process (with a
> `pkg-config --print-errors --short-errors --exists libdpdk` query) which
> resulted an error, but, if manually executed via terminal it returns
> success.
>
> So, the questions is how to force PkgConfig to pick libraries (installed
> system-wide) from CMakeLists? Are there any obvious things i forgot? Is it
> a bug?
It looks like it should work. Some things that may be part of the problem:
- there are multiple pkg-config executables, and CMake picks up another one
- some environment variables, likely some PKG\_\* ones, are influencing what you
see and are missing for the CMake run. You could try running the calls with an
empty environment via “env”.
Eike