On Saturday 08 December 2001 01:27 am, you wrote: > Hi list, > > Being new, I'm sure I'm going to have lots of questions and stuff I just > don't like. However this dependency stuff when installing software in Linux > is making me nuts!
Take a number and get in line :) > Why in Linux does > software depend on other software? Why? Why can't each program stand up on > it's own two 1's and 0's? Packages depend on other--usually lower level-- packages to save on system resources. If you have a library A and programs B, C and D all need to use it, it makes more sense to have a common A library that all programs can draw on. Having each program compile library A into themselves would result in larger binaries, more memory usage and just generally waste resources. It's possible to compile the library directly into the binary in Linux, but it's rarely done. If a newer version of library A is released, most of the time you can replace the library and B, C and D will immediately benefit from the upgrade. the alternative would require new binaries for all the programs that use A. You are most likely coming from Windows. Windows does things similarly (but not as well, of course :)), they're called DLLs. But a Windows program pretty much always comes with all the DLLs it needs and installs them. Sometimes they may check to see if the DLL is already installed, a lot of times they don't. Sometimes you end up with two different versions of a DLL, which can cause problems. > And that brings me to another question. RPMS. I'm not comfortable with the > concept of installing just yet, and Lord knows the Kpackage and the like in > the distros aren't helping. I have a problem pointing the installer to the > source disks. I kinda thought this would be as easy as pointing to a drive > letter as in Windows. You mean rpmdrake? What error messages are you getting? What exactly is happening? rpmdrake should have the three 8.1 cds as sources by default. > ............Why do I get the feeling someone is about to point out to me > that I should have read a RPMS HOW-TO. rpms really aren't that bad. The dependency thing is a common thing for beginners to get stuck on. I was tearing my hair out on this not too long ago. Using a program like rpmdrake or urpmi can lessen the blow of that. After a while you'll get a feel for when you can force an rpm to install despite dependancy problems. rpms become second nature really fast, I promise :) If you ever need rpms that aren't on the cds, www.rpmfind.net is your best bet. Matt
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