Libraries and dependencies (Re: [Techtalk] "I need to use Windows because ...")

[Mary]

On Sun, Aug 11, 2002, Poppy wrote:
> Would be nice, tho, see more static packages... Even if it means
> losing some of the benefit of having libraries... I'd rather see
> static packages that repeat stuff from a library than see 90% of the
> people trying to install something give up on it because they can't
> find the library... I don't know what I'd do without rpm and rpmfind
> for finding the libraries I need.

There are a growing set of tools that automatically satisfy dependencies
for you.

The most well known is Debian's apt-get tool. There is also Red Carpet
for Ximian's programs I believe. There is urpmi for Mandrake, and the
Control Center's Install Software section is a GUI equivalent.

I'm sure people can post others for their own distros. They all mean
that as long as the program can find a package somewhere in locations it
knows about (the defaults are generally good, but if you're outside the
US, you'd be better changing them to local mirrors) it will download, or
install from CD, packages to meet your dependencies automatically.

-Mary.