I thought I’ll make this thread for all of you out there who have questions but are afraid to ask them. This is your chance!

I’ll try my best to answer any questions here, but I hope others in the community will contribute too!

  • sag@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Why in Linux, Software uses a particular version of a library? Why not just say it’s dependent on that library regardless of version? It become pain in ass when you are using an ancient software it required old version of newer library so you have to create symlinks of every library to match old version.

    I know that sometimes newer version of Library is not compatible with software but still. And what we can do as a software developer to fix this problem? Or as a end user.

    • PlexSheep@infosec.pub
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      9 months ago

      Software changes. Version 0.5 will not have the same features as Version 0.9 most of the time. Features get added over time, features get removed over time and the interface of a library might change over time too.

      As a software dev, the only thing you can do is keep the same API for ever, but that is not always feasible.

      • sag@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        Hey, Thanks I have one more question. Is it possible to ship all required library with software?

        • Bienenvolk@feddit.de
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          9 months ago

          That is possible indeed! For more context, you can look up “static linking vs dynamic linking”

          Tldr: Static linking: all dependencies get baked into the final binary Dynamic linking: the binary searches for libraries in your system’s PATH and loads them dynamically at runtime