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

+2 votes
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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

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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
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