Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version 12.4

Chapter 25. Graphical Environment Libraries

gdk-pixbuf-2.42.12

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.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 12.4 platform.

Package Information

Gdk Pixbuf Dependencies

Required

GLib-2.84.4 (GObject Introspection required for GNOME), libjpeg-turbo-3.0.1, libpng-1.6.50, and shared-mime-info-2.4

Recommended

docutils-0.21.2, librsvg-2.61.0 (runtime dependency, needed for loading symbolic icons) and libtiff-4.7.0

Optional

Gi-DocGen-2025.4 (to generate documentation), 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   \
      --wrap-mode=nofallback &&
ninja

If you have Gi-DocGen-2025.4 installed and wish to build the API documentation for this package, issue: 

sed "/docs_dir =/s@\$@ / 'gdk-pixbuf-2.42.12'@" -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 man=false: Use this option if you do not want to generate manual pages, or if you do not want to install docutils-0.21.2.

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