[Nottingham] k3b install, yum, gcc and libs

[Robert Hart]

On Fri, 2004-09-17 at 14:23, David Wolfson wrote:

> If I've got this right, if you use rpms they install binaries that are
> dependant on other bits of the system.  If you haven't go them, then
> the rpm can't install. 

I think that's more "wont" than "can't". Most package system (rpm, deb,
whatever) have options to "force" and installation, even if it thinks it
wont work.

>  If you get the source code, it compiles with what you've got on the
> system already.  

Yes pretty much. However, for some programs, when you compile them from
source, the features you get depend on what libraries were available at
the point you compile it.

> But if you use the rpm, once it's running then 'its safe' amd chris
> tarrant can't takwe it away from you.  If you compile from source, and
> then change/upgrade something significant on your system then you
> might need to recompile again?

Yes. Basically the rpm just makes the "dependencies" explicit, and by
providing binaries, will make the compile time choices for you (such as
which version of a certain library it needs, etc.)

In my opinion, it works great, as long as you don't try and mix the two
systems, or need to get packages from one distribution to work on
another. If you like the idea of a package manager making sure
everything works, and you like the idea of keeping really up-to-date,
you will want to look at something like "debian unstable", or (I
imagine), gentoo, blah blah blah (but here we descend into "which
distro?" again)

Rob

  


-- 
Robert Hart <enxrah at nottingham.ac.uk>
University of Nottingham


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