Date: Sat, 13 Apr 1996 18:09:45 -0400 (EDT) From: John Brann <jbrann@panix.com> To: david.allan@probono.law.utah.edu (David Allan) Cc: questions@freebsd.org (freeq) Subject: Re: libXpm.so.4.6 Message-ID: <199604132210.SAA12270@jbrann.dialup.access.net> In-Reply-To: <v01530501ad9550934288@[155.99.156.16]> from David Allan at "Apr 13, 96 12:54:04 pm"
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David Allan wrote... > >> First, would someone please gently tell me if this list is not the > >> appropriate place for this type of question. > > > >Yes, this is the place :) > > Thanks--I've been on the net for about 5 years, but I'm a real newbie to > the UNIX world. Relax, the natives hereabout are friendly. > Pixmap was one of the apps that wouldn't run for me. Where did you > get your libXpm.so.4.6? It didn't come with FreeBSD when I installed it > (last week, via FTP from FreeBSD.org). The versions I've been using have > been from RedHat directories, so they may be designed for Linux, not Not designed for, but compiled and linked on! That explains it! You need the FreeBSD 'pixmap' port or package. If you're still nervous about building things, get the package. For 2.1 you need xpm-3.4f.tgz which is in .../packages/x11. Use pkg_add on that, and your problems should be over. > FreeBSD, but I'm not really sure. > > Dave > > Your error message is actually useful and correct. The 'magic number' appears at the beginning of the file, and helps the system know what to do with it. For instance, many shell scripts begin with '#!' which tells the system to use the string following (usually /bin/sh) as the command interpreter to run the following script through. Binary files (such as executable programs and the shared library you were having trouble with) also have magic numbers which help the system to make sure its doing the right thing. If it finds an unexpected magic number, it barfs. Fortunately Linux uses different magic numbers from FreeBSD, so the system avoided doing something unpleasant by executing a shared library which would probably have crashed messily. John. -- Beavis and Butt-Head; Vladimir and Estragon for the '90s. finger jbrann@panix.com for pgp public key
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