Multiple versions of a library [solved]

[coccodrilletto]

Hi everybody,

is there a way to install multiple versions of the same library?

Thanks!

 

(Details)

I'd like to give a try to an "elder" program, there are both rpm and tar packages for it; both require libncurses.so.4. MDK 10.0 installs the newer libncurses.so.5.

So, the program install fails (failed dependencies if I use rpm; configure error if I build the tar package). If I try to install libncurses.so.4 urpmi/rpm tells me that can't be done for it conflicts with the installed version, which is needed by something else.

[tyme]

how good are you at compiling a program yourself (from source)?

 

what you could do is install ncruses version 4 doing the:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
su
make install

routine. this will put the new library in /usr/local/lib instead of /usr/lib and then link to it:

ln -s /usr/local/lib/libncurses.so.4 /usr/lib/libncurses.so.4

and it should be detected by the program (we hope). the reason for configuring the older version to put itself in /usr/local is so that it doesn't overwrite any files and cause problems with anything using the newer ncurses.

Edited January 9, 2005 by tymark

[coccodrilletto]

Thanks Tymark,

I would have gone for the solution you proposed; only, I wasn't immediately able to find sources for libncurses.4 around... in the meanwhile, a friend suggested me to try a (dirty enough) workaround which, much to my surprise, turned out to work.

I created a soft link from the existing libncurses.so.5 to the (missing) libncurses.so.4, and then installed the rpm with --nodeps. The program is happy with the libncurses I gave it, it doesn't seem to notice any difference.

 

The program is e2defrag, which I wanted to test. Unluckily, it defrags only ext2 formatted with 1 kB blocks, while the default is 4 kB blocks. So it's useless. But I managed to test it on an image file which I formatted with

mke2fs -b 1024 image

then mounted loopback, then intentionally fragmented by copying and deleting many files, then umounted, and e2defrag defragged it happily :-)

Thanks again, Cocco

Edited January 14, 2005 by coccodrilletto

[tyme]

I created a soft link from the existing libncurses.so.5 to the (missing) libncurses.so.4, and then installed the rpm with --nodeps. The program is happy with the libncurses I gave it, it doesn't seem to notice any difference.

ah yes, i've done similar before. should've though of it!