Where are package library and header files installed?

Question

After downloading and installing a package in Ubuntu, how can I check where the library and header files were written to? I believe that this has something to do with the package's .pc file, but I do not know how to find that file either.

For example, I have downloaded the PCL (Point Cloud Library) package, and then in a sample CMakeLists.txt file, I have been given the following:

include_directories(${PCL_INCLUDE_DIRS})
link_directories(${PCL_LIBRARY_DIRS})
add_definitions(${PCL_DEFINITIONS})

Where are these environment variables defined, and how can I see them?

If I compiled the libraries from source rather than through a package, will this be any different? Will a .pc file be created automatically?

Answer 1

If you install the package containing the libpcl development files

sudo apt-get install libpcl-dev

You can list the installed files

dpkg -L libpcl-dev

an see the location of all headers.

...
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/fast_bilateral.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/voxel_grid_covariance.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/voxel_grid_occlusion_estimation.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/median_filter.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/crop_box.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/voxel_grid_label.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/covariance_sampling.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/random_sample.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/normal_refinement.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/project_inliers.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/fast_bilateral_omp.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/clipper3D.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/convolution.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/passthrough.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/conditional_removal.h
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/frustum_culling.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/conditional_removal.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/convolution_3d.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/voxel_grid_covariance.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/fast_bilateral_omp.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/project_inliers.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/morphological_filter.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/crop_box.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/covariance_sampling.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/local_maximum.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/plane_clipper3D.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/bilateral.hpp
/usr/include/pcl-1.7/pcl/filters/impl/voxel_grid_occlusion_estimation.hpp
....