Package cairo was not found in the pkg-config search path.

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The error message “package cairo was not found in the pkg-config search path” indicates that the cairo package is not installed or cannot be located by the pkg-config utility. This utility is used to retrieve information about installed libraries and their compilation flags, which is often required by build systems for linking and compiling programs.

To resolve this issue, you need to make sure that the cairo package is installed on your system and that its .pc file (pkg-config file) is available in the pkg-config search path. Here’s how you can do it on different platforms:

  1. Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

            sudo apt install libcairo2-dev

    This command installs the libcairo2-dev package, which contains the required headers and .pc file for pkg-config to find and use cairo.

  2. Mac OS:
    You can use either Homebrew or MacPorts to install cairo.

    • Homebrew:
      If you have Homebrew installed, run the following command:

                  brew install cairo
    • MacPorts:
      If you have MacPorts installed, run the following command:

                  sudo port install cairo

    Both options will install the necessary headers and .pc file for pkg-config to find cairo.

  3. Windows:
    Installing cairo on Windows involves a slightly different process. You can follow these steps:

    1. Download the precompiled cairo binaries for Windows from the official website (https://cairographics.org/download/).
    2. Extract the downloaded files to a directory (e.g., C:\cairo).
    3. Add the C:\cairo\bin directory to your system’s PATH environment variable.
    4. Create a new environment variable called PKG_CONFIG_PATH and set its value to C:\cairo\lib\pkgconfig.

    These steps will ensure that pkg-config can locate the .pc file for cairo on Windows.

Once you have installed and set up the cairo package, you should no longer encounter the error message. It’s important to note that the exact installation process may vary depending on your operating system and package manager.

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