Baslinux mailing list

[Matrix Mole <matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Tue, 25 May 2004 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Matrix Mole wrote:
> >
> > Would any changes to the source need to be made to account
> > for the older library? I've heard that some programs wrote
> > for newer libraries won't compile on older ones just because
> > of certain command calls that may not be supported.
>
> This is certainly an issue when compiling with libc5.  There
> are many significant differences between libc5 and the current
> glibc2.  However, the differences between version 2.1 of glibc
> and 2.3 are relatively minor.  The main problem when compiling
> current sourcecode with BL2 is missing packages.  Sourcecode
> is becoming more complex and expects additional functionality,
> like autoconf, automake, bison, gettext, perl, etc.  Usually
> you will find the necessary package(s) in /slakware/d1, but
> first you have to figure out what is missing by reading the
> error messages.  I suppose such unpleasantness could be avoided
> by installing every package in /slakware/d1 (but that would
> hardly be minimalistic).

I agree, hardly minimalistic, which is exactly what BL is supposed to be
of course :)

Is there some way of discovering what packages are required by a source
compilation prior to attempting to compile the program? Most sites I've
seen that have had source packages for people to d/l and build themselves
don't usually mention the packages that may be needed (perhaps they assume
the downloader has a fully installed system as opposed to a personal
build).

Something akin to ldd for binary packages would be really useful, of
course, I can see how that may not work with the vast number of binaries
that could feasibly be needed by something. Is it possible to just look
trhough the source and see what is needed (by looking at the include lines
for example)?

Obviosuly, when you attempt to compile a program, and it spits out errors
about missing libraries, you can go hunt them down, but would it be easier
to pry the needed library out of the package it is found in, or simply to
isntall the package? For those wishing to do a large number of compiling
and development, would it be easier to have a completely seperate system
that is strictly used for that purpose with all the slakware/d1 packages
installed?

-- 
Matrix Mole
matrixm AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org