diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 168a90c..10b9075 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@ list(APPEND PKGCONFIG_LIBS hipo4)
 
 # build extensions
 option(BUILD_DATAFRAMES "Build dataframes extension" ON)
+set(WITH_DATAFRAMES FALSE)
 if(BUILD_DATAFRAMES)
     set(DATAFRAME_IN_MAIN TRUE)
     add_subdirectory(extensions/dataframes)
diff --git a/cmake/hipo4.pc.in b/cmake/hipo4.pc.in
index b6281ee..a9f593d 100644
--- a/cmake/hipo4.pc.in
+++ b/cmake/hipo4.pc.in
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ prefix=${pcfiledir}/../..
 includedir=${prefix}/include
 libdir=${prefix}/lib
 
+with_dataframes=@WITH_DATAFRAMES@
+
 Name: hipo4
 Description: High Performance Output data format for experimental physics
 Version: @HIPO_VERSION@
diff --git a/extensions/dataframes/CMakeLists.txt b/extensions/dataframes/CMakeLists.txt
index 5ee631e..5b4be09 100644
--- a/extensions/dataframes/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/extensions/dataframes/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -134,4 +134,5 @@ else()
 
     list(APPEND PKGCONFIG_LIBS HipoDataFrame)
     set(PKGCONFIG_LIBS ${PKGCONFIG_LIBS} PARENT_SCOPE)
+    set(WITH_DATAFRAMES TRUE PARENT_SCOPE)
 endif()