| 1 | <chapter id="general-genlib">
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| 2 | <?dbhtml filename="genlib.html"?>
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| 3 | <title>General Libraries</title>
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| 4 |
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| 5 | <para>Libraries contain code which is often required by more than
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| 6 | one program. This has the advantage that each program doesn't need to
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| 7 | duplicate code (and risk introducing bugs), it just has to call
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| 8 | functions from the libraries installed on the system. The most obvious
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| 9 | example of a set of libraries is <application>glibc</application> which is
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| 10 | installed during the <acronym>LFS</acronym> book. This contains all of
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| 11 | the <application>C</application> library functions which programs use.</para>
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| 12 |
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| 13 | <para>There are two types of library, static and shared. Shared libraries
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| 14 | (usually <filename>libXXX.so</filename>) are loaded into memory from the shared
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| 15 | copy at runtime (hence the name). Static libraries (<filename>libXXX.a
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| 16 | </filename>) are actually linked into the program executable file itself, thus
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| 17 | making the program file larger. Quite often, you will find both static and
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| 18 | shared copies of the same library on your system.</para>
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| 19 |
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| 20 | <para>Generally, you only need to install libraries when you are
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| 21 | installing software which requires functionality which they supply. In
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| 22 | the <acronym>BLFS</acronym> book, each package is listed with a list of (known)
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| 23 | dependencies. Thus, you can figure out which libraries you need to have
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| 24 | before installing that program. If you are installing something without
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| 25 | using <acronym>BLFS</acronym> instructions, usually the <filename>README
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| 26 | </filename> or <filename>INSTALL</filename> file will contain details of the
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| 27 | programs requirements.</para>
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| 28 |
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| 29 | <para>There are certain libraries which nearly <emphasis>everyone</emphasis>
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| 30 | will need at some point. In this chapter we list these and some others and
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| 31 | explain why you may want to install them.</para>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | &openssl;
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| 34 | &pcre;
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| 35 | &popt;
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| 36 | &slang;
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| 37 | &fam;
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| 38 | &libxml;
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| 39 | &libxml2;
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| 40 | &libxslt;
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| 41 | &readline;
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| 42 | &gmp;
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| 43 | &gdbm;
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| 44 | &GLib;
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| 45 | &GLib2;
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| 46 | &expat;
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| 47 | &libesmtp;
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| 48 | &aspell;
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| 49 | &ispell;
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| 50 | &guile;
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| 51 | &slib;
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| 52 | &gwrap;
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| 53 | &LZO;
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| 54 | &libpcap;
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| 55 | &libusb;
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| 56 | </chapter>
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