Can anyone explain me what the difference is between (for example)
/usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so
and
/usr/X11R6/lib/libXm.so.2
The name! :o) Actually I'm kind of serious - if you look carefully you'll see that the one without a version number is actually a link to the one with. When a program wants some of the functionality a library provides, it "links that library in", so it can access the code inside it. Some programs just don't care which version of a library they use (because, eg., they only use basic features) so they'll ask for "libXm.so". Other programs might insist on version 2, so they'll ask for "libXm.so.2". Others might need a really up to date version, so they'll ask for eg. "libXm.so.2.1", and complain if they can't get it. If you only have one version of the library on the machine (which is the normal case) you make a bunch of soft links such that whichever version a programs asks for, it'll always be presented with your one, single library. -- 3:44pm up 20 days, 1:12, 2 users, load average: 0.14, 0.03, 0.01