[ILUG] how do you find what application contains a specific library.

[Conor Daly]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2007 at 09:45:44AM +0100 or so it is rumoured hereabouts, 
Darragh Ó Héiligh thought:
> Hello,
> 
> I have what is likely a very simple question.
> An application I am trying to install is looking for libasound.so in
> SuSE 10.2.
> 
> I cant install the libasound rpm from GWDG.be as it says it's
> incompatible with the existing instlalation of Alsa.
> 
> Fine, so, how do I get this library installed?
> 
> so, in short, again, how would you usually go about finding the
> application that contains a specific library.  Google is great but I'm
> looking for a better method as it can be a bit hit and miss at times.

I find http://rpmfind.net to be very helpful there.   Just put
'libasound.so' into the search box and it returns things like
libalsa2-devel and alsa-lib-devel for various distributions.  It also
returns 'alsa-1.0.13-22.i586.html' for Suse 10.2.  There is also a full
rpm database you can install (called rpmdb on redhat systems.  I don't
know if there is a Suse equivalent).  This allows you search using rpm
commands eg.

rpm -q --whatprovides /usr/lib/libasound.so

will tell you what package contains the file.  You seem to need to know
the path to the file to use this though which you won't know if you
haven't got it installed.

The other possibility is to consider using apt.  You can get at apt by
installing synaptic (which is a gui interface and so might not suit you).
Or you can run apt by itself.  

apt-get update

followed by

apt-get install <your application>

will search out and install dependent libraries and applications.
 
> Oh, and do you install the library on it's own or the entire application.

A library usually comes on its own.  The relevant rpm contains only the
library files but no application along with them.

Conor
-- 
Conor Daly <conor.daly at cod.homelinux.org>
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