Soft linking libraries

[Anthony M. Rasat]

>Many application when linked >with -lglut report that library not >found. Why the standard >installationdoesn't create  a >software link libglut.so->libglut.so.3 ? Any logical >reasons ?

Thinkering around with libraries goes back as far as my slackware days, I think the reason would be upgradability. Since major version (e.g. number 3 in libglut.so.3) is rarely changes however minor version (e.g. number .8.0 in libglut.so.3.8.0) do change in upgrade so it would break dependencies.

I remember workaround for this is to freeze the library version (which is bad idea unless that is not a production machine) against upgrade but I can't seem to recall how. Sorry. I guess you need to google around a bit.

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Regards,

Anthony M. Rasat
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