On Sat, Jan 6, 2018 at 1:56 PM, <to...@tuxteam.de> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > On Sat, Jan 06, 2018 at 01:38:06PM -0800, Dan Hitt wrote: >> I'm trying to build some software, and one of the long list of items >> to install prior to configuring is 'alsa-lib'. >> >> I tried >> 'sudo apt-get install alsa-lib' >> but got the message >> 'E: Unable to locate package alsa-lib' > > There's no binary package 'alsa-lib'. Often, several binary packages > are built from one source package, each one can then be installed > independently. > >> So i looked around on the internet, and saw a page for an alsa-lib >> package on debian stretch: >> https://packages.debian.org/source/stretch/alsa-lib > > In your case, the page you mention lists all binary packages built > from alsa-lib (libasound, libasound-data, and a couple of others). > > Typically, at least one -dev (e.g. for libraries, containing the > headers, when you want to build against the libs), and -doc are > built as separate binary packages: in systems with restricted > storage page, you don't always want the full documentation, for > example. The -udeb [1] there is, for example, a stripped down > version meant for the installer (in the installer you want just > naked functionality, to keep things small). > > If you run the build scripts from the source package, it'll > generate all the binary packages. > > Cheers > [1] > https://d-i.alioth.debian.org/doc/talks/debconf6/paper/index.html#id2535182
Thanks Tomas, Thomas S, and Roberto for the explanation of what a source package is, and the suggestion of which of the alsa-lib packages i should install. (I ended up installing libasound2-dev, and as a precaution, libasound2-doc just in case i need to look over the docs for whatever reason.) dan