top button
Flag Notify
    Connect to us
      Site Registration

Site Registration

Why cannot -libs and -devel be part of the installation on linux?

+2 votes
564 views

Why, when installing a new app do we need to also install the -libs and the -devel if the app is needed to make another app work.

Why cannot -libs be part of the installation if they are that important to the operation. Why are -devel, which I'm guessing are development files for the app needed, does this mean the app is bar minimum and cannot be used when required by another app.

posted Nov 2, 2013 by Ahmed Patel

Share this question
Facebook Share Button Twitter Share Button LinkedIn Share Button

2 Answers

+1 vote
 
Best answer

Usually packages where the libraries are split out are done that way because they can be shared by other programs, and those programs might not need the whole application. This granularity isn't (usually) strictly necessary, but makes the distribution a lot more flexible. One example would be a split between a graphical interface and the underlying engine -- the engine could be used on a headless server, without needing to pull in the graphical user environment.

If you use the higher level application installer you don't have to worry about this, and even if you use a moderately-low level program like yum, it will pull in all the right packages.

also -devel are only needed when *compiling* other programs, and are not needed at runtime.

answer Nov 2, 2013 by Jai Prakash
+1 vote

Why, when installing a new app do we need to also install the -libs and the -devel if the app is needed to make another app work.

you do not need any devel-package if you do not compile software from source if you think so post specific output about what you are talking

Why cannot -libs be part of the installation if they are that important to the operation.

they are part of the installation by dependencies

answer Nov 2, 2013 by Garima Jain
Similar Questions
0 votes

How does one get a clean installation of Fedora? "Clean" means that only those packages are installed that are actually needed and only those services are running that are actually needed.

0 votes

I somehow deleted /tmp when I was deleting files from /tmp to make room. Now I get errors when I boot and try to login

There is a problem with the configuration server.
(/usr/libexec/gconf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

When I close that, I get:

Install problem!
The configuration defaults for GNOME Power Manager have not been installed correctly. Please contact your computer administrator.

One time I saw the login options - when I logged in I only saw a black screen. Other than doing an install, is there a way to recover the files in /tmp?

0 votes

Installed Fedora 26 on recommendation of a Scribus developer. Installed about 30 packages per his advice.

But when I try to compile a program the machine can't find C++. So what is the package I need to install to compile C++ programs?.

Another question. On Slackware (yes I am one of those) I can use kdm to get to a window function ( I preferXFCE). How do I set up a window manager in Fedora and how do I access it?

+3 votes

Is it possible to install Fedora on a Chromebook and completely REMOVE the ChromeOS? if so...how? everything I've seen so far says "dual-boot" but nothing seems to give you instructions as to how it can be
completely removed from the system.

+1 vote

In order to do an OS install, you need to have an external media to start the install process. This media provides a "base"/small system that you can then use to do a larger netinstall, or a larger update process to get the drive/system setup the way you want. All of the larger system install data/packages/etc can come from the http/net install process.

In most (all) cases I've seen, the process is then to take/remove the CD from the system, followed by a restart, where the system OS on the drive then gets invoked.

So this process requires some manual interaction.

Here's my question:
Is there a way to do the same basic process, except to always leave the CD in, and to then be able to "switch" the system, so it "knows" which media to install from.

If this can be done, one can setup a system with a basic cd that will, when run, create/start the basic OS install, but then not be used any other time... This could allow for an auto/programatic approach to be able to do a remote/auto OS install.

Is there any other way that this might be accomplished?

...