Librarys, What Where When Why?
 

I have been constantly getting errors due to not having libraries for 60% of all apps I try to install...

Is there a way I can find out What Librarys are needed for an app? (The site doesn't list then - not easily anyway (still can't find 'em))

My machine needs several apparently, but I don't know what Libraries to find (or where to find them)?

All help is appreciated - even when I can't spell the word =)

Hi there.
I find it strange that the dependencies are not on the app's page. Perhaps they will be listed in the files INSTALL or README. I'm not so sure about how to figure out what dependencies a source package needs without them being listed somewhere. (Appart from actually looking in the source :p)

But I know how to find out what dependecies are missing for a binary file; just use ldd.

For example, lets find out what 'ls' depends on.
cd /bin/
ldd ls
librt.so.1 => /lib/librt.so.1 (0x40026000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40038000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x4015b000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

Very handy indeed! :)
Good Luck!
RefriedBean

PS, remeber, ldd is your friend :)

One possible research location is http://rpmfind.net . Inquire on the rpm package, if it's an rpm, and select the description (not the download) link for the distro that's closest to yours. The description link has a "requires" list and a "provides" list.

If it's an rpm, you can also use the "--test" option to show what dependencies may not be satified. There are also other ways of inquiring with the rpm app to find out lots of info about the specific rpm package that you are looking at.

Look for an rpm book, or go to http://www.rpm.org for further info.

ok... Lets say I use ldd and ls requires '/lib/libpthread.so.0' and I don't have it -> How do I find this on the net to install (I have this of course but its an example)

Also - about RPMs - I haven't yet used one (Haven't gotten to it, I have downloaded everything as sources and compiled myself (most don't offer SRPMs) - I have Slackware and downloaded anything that looks professional and small =) (I got a dial-up connection... no KDE, GNOME, etc...)

When I compile certain apps, they complain that the Libs exist, but it can't test (QT Libs) - How do you test to see what version you have (other than a dir name))?

A note: I guess I could see if certain packages exist as RPMs and use RPM find to see what it depends on - but what about those that don't exist as RPMs or RPMFind doesn't list dependancies (Have seen one of these...)

Oops!! Sorry didn't realize you were a Slackware user, Slack prides itself in NOT using rpm :) . That's O.K., it's just not what I use.

okay, give this discussion the version of Linux you are using and if you have glibc or an older version of libc, if you know it.
Some of the Apps might be for an older version or newer version of linux that requires different library dependencys(sp?).