From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Dec 4 07:24:18 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id HAA13843 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 4 Dec 1996 07:24:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from freebie.brann.org ([207.122.63.57]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id HAA13824 for ; Wed, 4 Dec 1996 07:24:15 -0800 (PST) Received: (from jbrann@localhost) by freebie.brann.org (8.8.2/8.8.2) id KAA11505; Wed, 4 Dec 1996 10:24:10 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199612041524.KAA11505@freebie.brann.org> Subject: Re: simple library install In-Reply-To: <32A6C43E.3116@unixg.ubc.ca> from Stephen Cawood at "Dec 5, 96 04:46:54 am" To: cawood@unixg.ubc.ca (Stephen Cawood) Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 10:24:09 -0500 (EST) Cc: questions@freebsd.org From: John Brann Organisation: Not while I'm at home X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL28 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Stephen Cawood wrote... > Thanks in advance. > > I am trying to use libXpm.so.4.7 that I got in gzip form. > > What do I do to install it? > > When I expand it, it has no suffix (ie .o or .a) so where does it go and > how do I use it. > Er, this is the shared library ('so' is allegedly an abbreviation for 'shared object'). A file ending in '.a' is a static library ('a' for 'archive'). The difference is that static libraries are used at link-edit time to build static executables and shared libraries are used at run-time by dynamically linked executables (man ld). To end run this problem, why not install the 'pixmap' port or package, which includes both (and you will need both, if you want to build any programs). John -- Well, that's like hypnotizing chickens. finger jbrann@brann.org for pgp public key