I am trying to install cairo. I got this error message when i did ./configure.

checking for cairo's PNG functions feature...
configure: WARNING: Could not find libpng in the pkg-config search path
checking whether cairo's PNG functions feature could be enabled... no
configure: error: recommended PNG functions feature could not be enabled

I looked online and found a website which said this command would work.

export png_REQUIRES="libpng"

It did work for the ./configure part. But now when i try to do make, it has this error message.

collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[3]: *** [libcairo.la] Error 1
make[3]: Leaving directory `/home/skylar/cairo-1.12.8/src'
make[2]: *** [all] Error 2
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/skylar/cairo-1.12.8/src'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/skylar/cairo-1.12.8'
make: *** [all] Error 2

I think it has to do with the export command. Any ideas?

p.s. The ./configure part has a warning at the end:

*** No native font backends enabled for your platform. It is strongly
*** recommended that you enable the native font backend feature for your
*** platform.

No, I think it's more likely you don't have the libpng and/or the libpng development libraries installed. You don't say what version/distro of Linux you're using, so we can't say what you need/how to install it. And have you checked your online repositories, to see if a pre-built cairo is available, rather than trying to build it from source?

building "cairo" from source requires a LOT of things to be built first

I am guessing that this is ubuntu or one of it's variants

If so install cairo using your package manager

from the cairo download page
to quote the README in "cairo-1.12.8.tar.xz"
you need to install first ( for Debian based OS's)

1 members found this post helpful.

I followed John VV's advice.

I am building Cairo for Pango, to make GTK+, and now this error message comes up when configuring Pango.

checking for CAIRO... yes
checking which cairo font backends could be used... none
configure: Disabling cairo support
configure: error: *** Could not enable any backends.
*** Must have at least one backend to build Pango.

I don't know why it says this, because i got cairo installed just fine.
I have ubuntu, and i think i need to install the libpng development libraries. How do i do this?

Is this Cairo build just for fun ?

if not you might want to use your package manager to install it and the -dev *.deb

cairo and pango require other packages

and you need to inform "configure" to use pango

It is a a lot work

now if you are building this "to learn HOW " , that is different


every program has PREREQUISITES
and those need building
Then
Those prerequisites also have prerequisites


so

Read the README and if there is a "Doc" folder in the source read that also

the full install instructions AND the needed software is almost always in the README file or the doc folder
OR
on the programs web site

then fallow what it called " dependency hell"
program "a" needs "b" but "b" needs "c"&"D" but "c" also needs "e"
but "d" needs "g" and so on ....

but IF AT ALL POSSIBLE !!! Use your package manager to install needed programs

Then and only then build the needed source code ,if it is not in the Ubuntu repos .

The answer above does not help the author at all.
You can simply solve the problem by installing libpng.

And this answer helps no one at all, since this thread had been closed for SEVEN YEARS. And in case you missed it, the OP was advised (three times), to install libpng, the exact same thing you posted.