I have installed some tgz packages that don't compiled for my current system (Slackware 10.2), and they work very good. But when I download packages from www.linuxpackages.net, I found they are marked that compiled for a certain version of operating system (Slackware 10, 10.1. 10.2). So I want to know if I install a package don't compiled for my current system, will it cause something wrong? If it won't, why people distinguish different version?

Usually, they are just optimized for a certain system but will run (or not, if they are from LinuxPackages; that is one mixed bunch). You should be more careful with the version number, if they are older than 10.0. Obviously, it all comes down to program and kernel dependencies.

Do you mean: if a package works, I can use it. If it cannot work, I should leave it?

Not exactly.

Actually it is like the particular package is tested on some Standard system, and that version no. or so is included.

If you try the package on some other system, it *may* work, but success is not guaranteed.
Installing the software on the recommended system is a sureshot win.

Thank you!
I want an old wine version (20041019) for winetools, but there are no compiled package for Slackware 10.2, and I can't compile it by myself (I did it on Slackware 10.1. I think the gcc in 10.2 may produce some wrong files when compile it). What can I do?

compiling it yourself should be possible.
so what compile errors do you get ?

egag

usually they are only optimized for your system.. but compiling it your own should be the best... why not download some source????

http://rinonapo.atspace.com

I've downloaded the source and try to compile it by myself. But it failed, and I found that compiling a software successfully is not so easy.

One should be very careful to install the necessary compilers when installing the system... I rarely have things that won't compile (except little, light-weight Abiword, which needs half a Gnome to function).

I cannot compile d4x 2.5.5 and wine-20041019 on Slackware 10.2. And I'm sure compilers are installed correctly. And I think the software I cannot compile are not the only two listed above.

Can't you see from your compile errors what you are missing? Some libs of some sort, perhaps?

I will try to recompile wine-20041019 tomorrow, and I'll paste the result here. Thank you for your help!

I tried to compile wine-20041019, and here is the result, I don't know what it means:

gcc -c -I. -I. -I../../../include -I../../../include -D__WINESRC__ -D_REENTRANT -fPIC -Wall -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2 -fno-strict-aliasing -gstabs+ -Wpointer-arith -g -O2 -o audio.o audio.c
In file included from /usr/include/alsa/asoundlib.h:48,
from alsa.h:23,
from audio.c:63:
/usr/include/alsa/conf.h:189: error: syntax error before "struct"
make[2]: *** [audio.o] error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/shad/wintools-with-wine20041019/wine-20041019/dlls/winmm/winealsa'
make[1]: *** [winmm/winealsa] error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/shad/wintools-with-wine20041019/wine-20041019/dlls'
make: *** [dlls] error 2

Compilation failed, aborting install.

Who can help me? egag, OSourceDiplomat, are you have any good ideas?

the compilermessage sais : syntax error before "struct " in line 189 of /usr/include/alsa/conf.h.

that is a standard alsa file and comes with alsa-lib-1.0.9-i486-1.tgz.
( in Slack-10.2 )
those files should be ok.

when i take a look at that file here i don't see a " struct " at line 189.
can you look in the " conf.h" file you have at line 189 ?

egag