How do I fix 'brew install pkg-config'?

Question

Warning: Could not link pkg-config. Unlinking...
Error: The `brew link` step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
You can try again using `brew link pkg-config`‏‏‏‏‏‏

dpott197 · Answer 1 · 2016-01-14T14:53:01.723

24

brew reinstall pkg-config
rm -R offending-directory
repeat step 1

edited Jan 14 '16 at 14:53

answered Nov 20 '12 at 22:08

dpott197

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is there a similar solution to this but for ubuntu? – Charlie Parker Aug 20 '14 at 21:25
third step is useless or should be `brew unlink pkg-config && brew link pkg-config` – soyuka May 08 '15 at 21:52
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You can merge the first three steps with `brew reinstall pkg-config`. – bfontaine Oct 19 '15 at 11:45

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 12 '13 at 15:24

As Michael Pigg said above, in my case it was the folder permission issue. I had to do the following:

sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/bin
sudo chmod 777 /usr/local/share/man/man1
brew link pkg-config

And after I'm done:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/share/man/man1

to restore the original permissions.

Michael Pigg · Answer 3 · 2013-04-09T09:36:27.410

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It may be a permissions issue on /usr/local/share. You need to have write permission in that directory for the link to complete. However, zsh will complain about the directory being insecure if you set the write permission. I gave the write permission to allow pkg-config to install and then removed it so that zsh would be happy.

edited Apr 09 '13 at 09:36

answered Apr 09 '13 at 09:17

Michael Pigg

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '13 at 07:24

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reinstall command line tools: https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action
brew link --overwrite --dry-run pkg-config

answered Feb 02 '13 at 07:24

Kuner

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`--dry-run` will prevent the linkage – bfontaine Oct 19 '15 at 11:44

How do I fix 'brew install pkg-config'?

4 Answers4

Linked