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                         I'm trying to build a program which requires other packages to be installed. I noticed that for some of these packages they will have a package with the same name but with -dev appended to the name. Which package should I install? If I install the -dev package is that sufficient?  | 
                
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                                     If you're on a debian based system, then a great tip is to use "apt-get build-dep packagename", which will bring in the build dependencies for that package. Even if you're not planning to use "apt-get source packagename" to get the source it can still save time.  | 
                            
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                                     As a rule of thumb, you want the dev-packages only for doing development related work, since they contain additional files you usually don't need (e.g. the header-files). Most often if users need dev-packages, they want to compile programs themselves instead of using the binary packages. So if the only reason I'm downloading a package is because something I'm compiling requires it, then just download the -dev package? 
                
                
                
                
                
                (06 Jun '11, 02:13)
                Linux Jedi
                
             
        Exactly. :) 
                
                
                
                
                
                (06 Jun '11, 06:22)
                Jazz ♦
                
             
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