Hi to all
I am using rhel4 and i want to install xfce. It required gtk+ >=2.6 and glib >=2.6.4. I have gtk+ 1.2 and glib-1.2 installed on my machine. I downloaded gtk+2.10 source.

1. Can I have two versions of gtk+ on same machine?
2. Will it create any conflict between softwares using gtk+1.2 and gtk+2.10?
3. In its site(www.gtk.org) it was mentioned that it would be easier to install the binary rather than compiling from source. Where can i get rpm for gtk+2.10? I searched rpmfind.net but couldn't find it.

Thanks a lot in advance.

GTK+ and GTK2 are actually separate libraries, there is nothing to clash at all. you shouldn't use source if you're not already comfortable doing do. rpm's for gtk+ should be on your distro cd's already.

I am new to linux and have no idea about the gtk libraries. I have one confusion. Does gtk+ 2.10 and gtk2 refer to same libraries? I have gtk2-2.4 rpm in my distribution cd.

You can have as many Gtks as you like on your system.

I've got one "main" version which is usally the version which comes with my distribution. I rarely touch this version.

Then I've got the latest one all complete with most recent Gtk, Glib, Pango, Cairo, Freetype and so on. Sometimes, there's a third version to play with - add patches for example. Mostly, I put them into /opt and simply add the path to /etc/ld.so.conf and adjust PKG_CONFIG_PATH according to what I need.

It's not that hard to compile all this by hand, BUT:

Gtk-based applications require several additional libraries which themselves require additional stuff. Mostly, they expect a complete environment of freetype, glib, atk, librsvg, poppler, pango, cairo and gtk - so don't be surprised if configure fails and asks for more.

A (very) short overview:

freetype = font handling (TTF stuff and other things),
glib = libc-wrapper,
atk = I forgot the details (some accessibility stuff)
librsvg = SVG handling, used by cairo,
poppler = pdf handling, used by cairo,
pango = text handling beyond just "fonts",
cairo = 2D rendering library and at last
gtk = "all the widgets and the buttons"

It refers to the same generation of Gtk.

Most distributions contain Gtk (first generation) and Gtk2 (second generation). The first one is just for old stuff and backwards compatibility of some applications. I don't even remember one actually using it.

"Gtk+ 2.10" is just a newer version of your Gtk2-2.4.rpm.

You'll find often just an instruction like "install a recent Gtk." and that would mean Gtk+ 2.12 today. (Most recent stable from 2 weeks ago.)

If Xfce needs at least Gtk 2.10, you're probably fine with Gtk 2.10 but also with 2.12.