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? |
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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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. |