what is the package popt-devel?

[iinfi1]

i am installing a client software for a product called vworkspace on CentOS/Suse desktop and it requires a package called popt-devel.

on my centos machine
[root@vworkspace qrdesktop]# rpm -qa | grep popt
popt-1.10.2.3-9.el5

on my suse machine
sled11:~ # rpm -qa | grep popt
popt-1.7-37.8


[code]
[root@vworkspace ~]# cd vworkspaceLinuxClient/qrdesktop/
[root@vworkspace qrdesktop]# ./install.sh

========================================================
Beginning Qrdesktop with connection manager installation
========================================================

==================================
Performing Pre-requisite checks...
==================================

Installer is now checking for core libraries:
Installer is checking for gcc-c++...
Installer is checking for libstdc++-devel...
Installer is checking for libpng-devel...
Installer is checking for popt-devel...ERROR: package popt-devel is not found.\n

Some of the core libraries that are required are not present. Installation cannot continue.
[/code]

simple answer to where i can find is google. but i am not able to get the right version of the package. only sesible link i get is http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=popt-devel
which doesnt have what i need (version)
i got the tarballs somewhere but there is a version incompatibility.
what is this popt-devel package and why is it so difficult to find.

thanks

[iinfi1]

it is not available on sourceforge either!

[kobylka]

Hello iinfi!


> what is the package popt-devel?

Every package in Linux, mostly rpm packages, follow some naming conventions to make it easier to manage packages. Sometimes software is packaged into two packages, one without -devel and one with -devel. Packages ending in -devel are those that include all the necessary for development for the package (header files, tools used by the software, etc). The other package, the one without -devel, does only include the binaries, manpages and every other files just needed to run the software.

You can read more on this naming convention here:

http://www.rpm.org/max-rpm/ch-rpm-file-format.html

> why is it so difficult to find

Well, once you know how this naming convention goes, just apply it to your search pattern:

popt-devel-1.7-37.8

and you will end up with the correct links.

For SuSE you might try, for example:

http://demeter.uni-regensburg.de/SLES11-SDK-x86/DVD1/suse/i586/


Kind regards,

Kobylka

[iinfi1]

thank you ... well i m not that new to linux, n was following the way you had suggested.
still sometimes this is a real pain to get dependencies resolved.
thanks for your help.

[Matti_Kurkela]

In most RPM-based Linux distributions, there are two levels of package management tools.

The "rpm" command is one of the low-level tools: it allows you to manage packages one by one, and requires you to sort out the dependencies manually.

In CentOS, the high-level tool is "yum"; I'm not sure what SuSE uses, but I believe it has something available. The high-level tools will handle the dependencies automatically and usually allow you to configure a set of locations (repositories) for downloading packages automatically.

With these tools, when you specify "install package A", the program might ask "Package A requires packages B and C; the total download size would be XXX kb, OK to download and install them all?"
Using the high-level tools instead of just the "rpm" command will save you a _lot_ of time and sanity in the long run.

MK

[iinfi1]

thanks Matti,

well :)
infact only after yum failed to resolve it for me, i went hunting .....
anyway i will try to search
thanks again for your help