Core System Libraries

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Debian GNU/Linux is a modern Linux distribution, so you won't find any big surprises here. The core libraries included with version 3.0 are listed in Table 6-6. If you compare this list with Tables 4-9 and 5-2, which list the core libraries for Red Hat Linux 7.2 and Slackware Linux 8.0, you'll see that they're pretty similar.

Table 6-6: Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 Core Libraries

PACKAGE	VERSION	COMMENT
XFree86	4.1.0	X Window System
glibc	2.2.5	Core run-time system libraries
bash	2.05a	Bourne Again SHell; primary system shell (used by root)
gdbm	1.7.3	File database libraries
fileutils	4.1	File manipulation utilities

The only thing that might give you a moment's pause is that Debian has alternate names for some of these packages. For example, the name of Red Hat's glibc RPM package is simply "glibc", whereas the name of Debian's equivalent package is "libc6". This is, of course, simply a matter of naming and has no bearing whatsoever on the contents of the packages.

You just need to be aware of this when you're using Debian's tools (or any distribution's tools, for that matter): if you can't find a package by name, don't assume it's not there. If you can't find the name of the package, then it's handy to use dpkg -S to locate the package from a file you know belongs to it. For example, dpkg -S /lib/libc.so.6 will reveal that Debian's package name is "libc6". In other words, there's a reason programs like dpkg support such query modes; learn to make good use of them.

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