Imager support for PNG, JPEG and GIF on macOS Sonoma

Installing our beloved Imager on macOS Sonoma with support for PNG, JPEG and GIF involves some pain. Here are the results of my struggle so others won't have to. Do this after installing Imager (requires Homebrew):

brew install pkg-config

brew install libpng
pkg-config --cflags libpng
cpan Imager::File::PNG

brew install jpeg
pkg-config --cflags libjpeg
cpan Imager::File::JPEG

brew install giflib
cpan Imager::File::GIF

GIF: Test code failed: Can't link/include 'gif_lib.h', 'stdio.h', 'errno.h', 'string.h', 'gif'...
! Configure failed for Imager-File-GIF-0.98. See /Users/you/.cpanm/work/1713652269.80239/build.log for details.

cd /Users/you/.cpanm/work/1713652269.80239/Imager-File-GIF-0.98

perl Makefile.PL -v --incpath=/opt/homebrew/include --libpath=/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/giflib/lib

make
make test
make install

For some reason the following didn't work with the cpan client:

o conf makepl_arg "LIBS=-L/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/giflib/lib INC=-I/opt/homebrew/include"

PS - pkg-config can't find giflib so the paths were found like this:

sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb

locate giflib
/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/giflib

locate gif_lib.h        
/opt/homebrew/Cellar/giflib/5.2.1/include/gif_lib.h
/opt/homebrew/include/gif_lib.h

Comment on Imager support for PNG, JPEG and GIF on macOS Sonoma

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Imager support for PNG, JPEG and GIF on macOS Sonoma by etj (Priest) on May 14, 2024 at 13:29 UTC
The way to get the Homebrew-installed location of a given package is (here) `brew --prefix giflib`, which would avoid needing the "locate" stuff.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Imager support for PNG, JPEG and GIF on macOS Sonoma by Anonymous Monk on Jan 13, 2026 at 00:01 UTC
> The way to get the Homebrew-installed location of a given package is (here) brew --prefix giflib, which would avoid needing the "locate" stuff. I know this node is old but it might be wrong so let's go. Thanks etj but --prefix doesn't seem to return the requred paths: % brew --prefix giflib /opt/homebrew/opt/giflib % ls -l /opt/homebrew/opt/giflib lrwxr-xr-x /opt/homebrew/opt/giflib -> ../Cellar/giflib/5.2.2 Required: --incpath=/opt/homebrew/include --libpath=/opt/homebrew/var/homebrew/linked/giflib/lib	[reply]