Stupid question about dependency checking

[sym]

This question is so simple and stupid that none of my books on Linux have bothered to answer it.

Every time I want to install a new Linux program, I always get this list of required libraries.

How do you check if these libraries/programs are installed?

For example, I wanted to download Enlightenment, but there are about 15 or so required libraries. I suspect that I have most of them, but how can I check?

Thanks!

[mrBen]

If you're on a RPM based distro (RedHat, Mandrake, etc) typing rpm -qa at the command line will list all the installed packages. ALternatively to find a particular packages, or group of packages, I tend to grep the results of this like so:

rpm -qa | grep <packagename>

So you could find all the libraries by doing:

rpm -qa | grep lib*

etc.

mrBen

[BTW - there's probably a flag for searching for an individual installed RPM, but I can never remember what it is, and grep seems so much handier, and cooler :cool:, to use ;)]

[MBMarduk]

Good one.
If experience with Linux is any indication (it's NOT!) then my 17 months still put me in the "newbie" stage. :)

I usually find out when running './configure'.
It responds that it can't find blahblahblah library, so off I go to hunt down the missing library.
This also keeps me well-informed to what's installed on my box.

[datadan]

some useful tools I use when checking dependancies is:

rpm -ivh --test "packagename"
rpm -qa --whatprovides "functionname (like make, apache, etc.)"

and because checking the rpm database will only work if the item was installed via rpm:

find / -iname "functionname (like make, apache, etc.)"

Or I just re-install using --force

HTH

[Derango]

Also, if your running an RPM based distro, you could always try to intall the RPM. If it dosen't work, it'll let you know what dependancies it needs.

Of course...such a thread can't go without one of these:

:cool: debian :cool:
:cool: apt :cool:

;)