Hi all!

I accidentally posted this here instead of the software section.

I'm not sure if the right people are reading it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Please post your thread in only one forum. Posting a single thread in the most relevant forum will make it easier for members to help you and will keep the discussion in one place. This thread is being closed because it is a duplicate.

hi

Devel packages should really worry you.

the -devel -dev or -src in (Mandriva) just contain the source code for the stated program.
you can use this to compile the program from scratch

you'll usually find these extract into /usr/src

the exception to the rule in the kernel-source package which does the same

thanks...my question now is how do I create a *-devel package from a source package?
i.e. I want to create kdelibs-devel-3.5.5 from kdelibs-3.5.5.tar.bz2
(I know it's possible because distro's do that!)

Do you mean the actual source files or a source RPM?

first it's important to understand -devel packages are a 100% artificial idea imposed on binary distributions. Something terrible and combersome that makes Linux much harder to use than it should be.
if you install compiled source code packages and install with "make install" all files including -devel files are installed.

beyond that if you want to make -devel packages for a library you just have to look at the packager documentation. In debian here where i am all you do is run deb-make and choose the Library option and you get two packages one binary lib and the other -dev package. i'm sure it's as easy (or not) for those other more dysfunctional distributions.

To all of you who responded to the thread, did you not see that acid_kewpie said that this thread was due for closure? There really is no point in responding to threads that are going to be locked. You should instead focus your efforts on the thread that is going to remain open which is the one linked to in the first post. Cheers.