I honestly find pkg-config to be the most sane "c package manager"
As long as a ./configure && make && make install installs package config files all I need to do is set PACKAGE_CONFIG_PATH and be done with it. I don't think c needs its own package manager, or at least another one.
I really like pkg-config but it has some issues with static linking. I had to create a GCC wrapper script to properly build and link the libimobiledevice suite into 100% static executables. pkg-config config files have fields to handle transitive shared linking but not one for static linking.
P.S. Apologies for the accidental downvote. I compensated by up voting another comment.
That tends to work well enough for my needs. I gate it with a --build-static flag so that I can run off shared if I want to or not.
I'd rather take pkg-config+autotools over any of these newfangled options. Going to take a lot to sway me over from a tried and true option across osx/linux/solaris/eh fine hpux too but just cause i'm in a good mood.
As long as a ./configure && make && make install installs package config files all I need to do is set PACKAGE_CONFIG_PATH and be done with it. I don't think c needs its own package manager, or at least another one.