Hi. Id like to know if there's a standard way to upgrade a library or package without using rpm or pkgtool. For instance, if I'm installing a new program and ./configure says ... glib x.x.x is too old ..upgrade it ... do I just download and install the new glib version without uninstalling the older glib?

I would assume that the new version of a lib would contain the same names` of things it would install and would probably overwite the older glib's but I am not sure if this is the case.

Basically, I guess what I need to know is without using a tool ( I like doing things manually to learn HOW) how do I uninstall a lib or package first and then be able to fresh install a new version of it?

thanks

I don't think there's a std way, only trial 'n error.
When I got deps in a lib I'll never ever use again for other apps (for instance mhash for Aide) I'm tempted to just compile a static binary. Usually with pkgmgmt tools and not having skipped major revisions the libs should install/upgrade over the older ones, what you could do (in case of minor impact libs) is move the old or new lib outside the ldconfig path, and manually direct apps that need it to the new path or add the path to ldconfig. IMO not Glib tho, it's kinda major thingie on your system, and if you read any threads anywhere about upgrading this (and from my experiences a looong time ago) you *know* you want this to be the least painfull of upgrades...

Also unless your pkgmgmnt tool allows you to register the package later on (like --justdb in rpm) you'll be severely b0rking your package databases, which in turn could return false dependencies while trying to install/upgrade new stuff later on.

What you could do is do a testrun with some minor impact libs and see if your approach will work. If that works and if you understand how your system depends on Glib, move on, but in essence I wouldn't fsck with Glib stuff unless I really really had to...

How do I find out if a certain package ( openssh for example ) is complied statically or not? I upgraded my openssl libraries and I read somewhere in this forum that I may need to recomplie openssh if it is statically compiled.

If you install a new version, old lib (if there are not in the old thing directory) will be overwrited... but this is not a problem as long you keep the old-thing directory... if it compiled right the first time, why may you have problem compiling it a second time (well.. of course... sometime...). Keep the old one for some time 'til you get sure everything is working fine, the get the rid off (rm -rf hehe) the old stuff
I really like tar.gz because I can really know where thing are installed inside my computer... packages will install their stuff anywhere... tar.gz let you the choice

Well, when you "compile" every progs instead of using a paxckage manger, you habitually remember what's the option you choose the first time especially if these option are not habitual.

yeah, them slackwh*re answers kick ass allright...

Nxny: running "ldd <binaryname>" shows you a list of shared libraries it's linked to, else it'll say "not a dynamic executable". For OpenSSH best bet is to recompile just to be sure.