Chapter 3. Compatibility issues

12

 foo.tar  into the directory

/usr/local/src/foo

. After you compile them, place the bi 

naries in

/usr/local/bin/

, the libraries in

/usr/local/lib/

, and the configuration files

in

/usr/local/etc/

.

If your programs and/or files really must be placed in some other directory, you could still

store them in

/usr/local/

, and build the appropriate symbolic links from the required loca 

tion to its location in

/usr/local/

, e.g., you could make the link

ln  s /usr/local/bin/foo /usr/bin/foo

In any case, if you obtain a package whose copyright allows redistribution, you should con 

sider making a Debian package of it, and uploading it for the Debian system. Guidelines for

becoming a package developer are included in the Debian Policy manual (see `What other

documentation exists on and for a Debian system?' on page

59

).

3.8 Why can't I compile programs that require libtermcap?

Debian uses the

terminfo

database and the

ncurses

library of terminal interface routes,

rather than the

termcap

database and the

termcap

library. Users who are compiling pro 

grams that require some knowledge of the terminal interface should replace references to

libtermcap

with references to

libncurses

.

To support binaries that have already been linked with the

termcap

library, and for which you

do not have the source, Debian provides a package called

termcap compat

. This provides

both

libtermcap.so.2

and

/etc/termcap

. Install this package if the program fails to run

with the error message  can't load library 'libtermcap.so.2 ', or complains about a missing

/etc/termcap

file.

3.9 Why can't I install AccelX?

AccelX uses the

termcap

library for installation. See `Why can't I compile programs that

require libtermcap?' on this page above.

3.10 Why do my old XFree 2.1 Motif applications crash?

You need to install the

motifnls

package, which provides the XFree 2.1 configuration files

needed to allow Motif applications compiled under XFree 2.1 to run under XFree 3.1.

Without these files, some Motif applications compiled on other machines (such as Netscape)

may crash when attempting to copy or paste from or to a text field, and may also exhibit other

problems.