Is there a argument to meson setup to not link with system library?

[moi15moi]

I'm trying to build freetype by using autotools (freetype does support meson, but forget this detail, I just want to learn). freetype has harfbuzz has a dependency (which use meson). I tried to use this bash file to build both of them:

#!/bin/bash

# If an error occurs, stop the script
set -eu

# Base directory (where the script is located)
SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"

# Build directory
mkdir -p "build"
BUILD_DIR="$SCRIPT_DIR/build"


# Function to build HarfBuzz library
build_harfbuzz() {
    echo "Building HarfBuzz..."
    cd "$BUILD_DIR"

    if [ ! -d harfbuzz-11.0.0 ]; then
        wget -O harfbuzz-11.0.0.tar.xz https://github.com/harfbuzz/harfbuzz/releases/download/11.0.0/harfbuzz-11.0.0.tar.xz
        tar -xf harfbuzz-11.0.0.tar.xz
    fi

    cd harfbuzz-11.0.0

    meson setup build \
        --prefix=/usr/local \
        --buildtype=release \
        --default-library=static \
        --wrap-mode=nodownload \
        -Dtests=disabled \
        -Ddocs=disabled

    ninja -C build
    DESTDIR="$ABS_BUILD_PATH" ninja -C build install
    #rm -rf build

    cd "$BUILD_DIR"
    rm -f harfbuzz-11.0.0.tar.xz
}

# Function to build FreeType library
build_freetype() {
    echo "Building FreeType..."
    cd "$BUILD_DIR"

    if [ ! -d freetype-2.13.3 ]; then
        wget -O freetype-2.13.3.tar.xz https://downloads.sourceforge.net/freetype/freetype-2.13.3.tar.xz
        tar -xf freetype-2.13.3.tar.xz
    fi

    cd freetype-2.13.3

    ./autogen.sh
    ./configure --enable-static \
                --disable-shared \
                --with-pic \
                --with-harfbuzz=yes \
                --with-zlib=no

    make -j$(nproc)
    make DESTDIR="$ABS_BUILD_PATH" install
    make distclean

    cd "$BUILD_DIR"
    rm -f freetype-2.13.3.tar.xz
}


# Function to build freetype and its dependencies
main() {
    local build_path="$BUILD_DIR/test"
    ABS_BUILD_PATH=$(realpath "$build_path")

    # PKG_CONFIG configuration
    export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$ABS_BUILD_PATH
    export PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR="$ABS_BUILD_PATH/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig"

    echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
    build_harfbuzz
    echo "--------------------------------------------------------------"
    build_freetype
}

main

The problem is that harfbuzz tries to use my system libraries, so it link it with the system freetype and icu (i don't want it to link to them).

I know it link it self to system libraries because I used meson introspect --dependencies which gave me this result:

[{"name": "Freetype", "type": "cmake", "version": "2.13.3", "compile_args": ["-I/usr/include/freetype2"], "link_args": ["/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so"], "include_directories": [], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": [], "depends": [], "meson_variables": ["freetype_dep", "check_deps"]}, {"name": "ICU", "type": "cmake", "version": "75.1", "compile_args": ["-I/usr/include"], "link_args": ["/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicuuc.so"], "include_directories": [], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": [], "depends": [], "meson_variables": ["icu_dep"]}, {"name": "threads", "type": "system", "version": "unknown", "compile_args": ["-pthread"], "link_args": ["-pthread"], "include_directories": [], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": [], "depends": [], "meson_variables": ["thread_dep"]}, {"name": "m", "type": "library", "version": "unknown", "compile_args": [], "link_args": ["-lm"], "include_directories": [], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": [], "depends": [], "meson_variables": ["m_dep"]}, {"name": "dep136945822507872", "type": "internal", "version": "11.0.0", "compile_args": [], "link_args": [], "include_directories": ["/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/src/.", "/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/build/src/."], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": ["threads", "m", "Freetype"], "depends": ["25a6634@@harfbuzz@sta"], "meson_variables": ["libharfbuzz_dep"]}, {"name": "dep136945818922224", "type": "internal", "version": "11.0.0", "compile_args": [], "link_args": [], "include_directories": ["/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/src/.", "/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/build/src/."], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": ["m"], "depends": ["25a6634@@harfbuzz-subset@sta"], "meson_variables": ["libharfbuzz_subset_dep"]}, {"name": "dep136945819071024", "type": "internal", "version": "11.0.0", "compile_args": [], "link_args": [], "include_directories": ["/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/src/.", "/home/moi15moi/Documents/GitHub/pylibass/build/harfbuzz-11.0.0/build/src/."], "sources": [], "extra_files": [], "dependencies": ["ICU"], "depends": ["25a6634@@harfbuzz-icu@sta"], "meson_variables": ["libharfbuzz_icu_dep"]}]

Is there a way, without specifying the dependency manually (ex: -Dfreetype=disabled and -Dicu=disabled), to not use system libraries? Just use the one that are in the PKG_CONFIG_PATH I specified?

[eli-schwartz]

Since you built harfbuzz first, there is no freetype in your PKG_CONFIG_PATH to find.

[moi15moi]

Yes, that's my goal. I don't want to to link to freetype (the system one and the one I build after).

[eli-schwartz]

[{"name": "Freetype", "type": "cmake",

Notice that it is reporting it is a "cmake" type dependency. Harfbuzz has logic to find freetype using meson's FindXXX.cmake support, and this is being autodetected as a fallback even if you modify the pkg-config search path so that meson tries and fails to find it using pkg-config.

The reliable and expected way to totally disable a feature is indeed to pass the setup option to do so. Just changing the dependency search path, is a good way to force a specific version to be found -- but not very good at forcing it to be marked as missing.

There are, broadly speaking, four different ways to locate a dependency:

• pkg-config (all dependencies)
• cmake (all dependencies)
• "config-tool": ncurses-config and similar XXX-config scripts (select dependencies documented in the meson docs)
• "system": checking for the libraries themselves by seeing if -lXXX and #include <xxx.h> work (select dependencies documented in the meson docs)

You may be able to cripple the second of these, by exporting CMAKE=/bin/false or similar.

[moi15moi]

Oh, ok. So I guess there's just a hacky way to do it.
I suppose I'll need to disable all optional HarfBuzz dependencies with -Dxxx=disabled to ensure the build is consistent across any environment.