Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version r12.4-426

Chapter 25. Graphical Environment Libraries

gdk-pixbuf-2.44.2

Introduction to Gdk Pixbuf

The Gdk Pixbuf package is a toolkit for image loading and pixel buffer manipulation. It is used by GTK+ 3 to load and manipulate images. In the past it was distributed as part of GTK+ 2, but it was split off into a separate package in preparation for the change to GTK+ 3.

[Note]

Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

Package Information

Gdk Pixbuf Dependencies

Required

GLib-2.86.1 (GObject Introspection required for GNOME), libjpeg-turbo-3.0.1, libpng-1.6.50, and shared-mime-info-2.4

Recommended

docutils-0.22.2, librsvg-2.61.2 (runtime dependency, needed for loading symbolic icons) and libtiff-4.7.1

Optional

Gi-DocGen-2025.5 (to generate documentation), glycin (to implement animations and sandboxed image decoding), libavif-1.3.0 (runtime dependency, needed for loading AVIF images), libjxl-0.11.1 (runtime dependency, needed for loading JPEG XL images), and webp-pixbuf-loader-0.2.7 (runtime dependency, needed for loading WebP images)

Installation of Gdk Pixbuf

Install Gdk Pixbuf by running the following commands: 

mkdir build &&
cd    build &&

meson setup ..            \
      --prefix=/usr       \
      --buildtype=release \
      -D others=enabled   \
      -D glycin=disabled  \
      --wrap-mode=nofallback &&
ninja

If you have Gi-DocGen-2025.5 installed and wish to build the API documentation for this package, issue: 

sed "/docs_dir =/s@\$@ / 'gdk-pixbuf-2.44.2'@" -i ../docs/meson.build &&
meson configure -D gtk_doc=true                                        &&
ninja

To test the results, issue: ninja test. The tests make a heavy use of disk.

Now, as the root user: 

ninja install
[Note]

Note

If you installed the package on to your system using a “DESTDIR” method, an important file was not installed and should be copied and/or generated. Generate it using the following command as the root user: 

gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders --update-cache

Command Explanations

--buildtype=release: Specify a buildtype suitable for stable releases of the package, as the default may produce unoptimized binaries.

--wrap-mode=nofallback: This switch prevents meson from using subproject fallbacks for any dependency declarations in the build files, preventing it from downloading any optional dependencies which are not installed on the system.

-D others=enabled: Enable the loaders for various image formats, for example BMP and XPM.

-D glycin=disabled: This option is needed if the optional dependency glycin is not installed.

Contents

Installed Programs: gdk-pixbuf-csource, gdk-pixbuf-pixdata, gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders, and gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer
Installed Libraries: libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so
Installed Directories: /usr/{include,lib}/gdk-pixbuf-2.0, /usr/libexec/installed-tests/gdk-pixbuf, /usr/share/installed-tests/gdk-pixbuf, /usr/share/gtk-doc/html/gdk-pixbuf, and /usr/share/thumbnailers

Short Descriptions

gdk-pixbuf-csource

is a small utility that generates C code containing images, used for compiling images directly into programs

gdk-pixbuf-pixdata

is a tool used to convert GdkPixbuf to GdkPixdata

gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders

collects information about loadable modules for Gdk Pixbuf and writes it to the default cache file location, or to stdout

gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer

creates thumbnails of pictures for use in other applications

libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so

contains functions used to load and render images