Solaris

this post is related to the arrangements of libraries in a solaris-8 distribution.

i want to build external packages on solaris-8
i need to know why libraries are scattered in a solaris distribution among different below mentioned directories,
please tell me whats the importance ??

/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/ccs/lib
/usr/openwin/lib
/usr/ucblib
/usr/xpg4/lib

please help i am a novice

/lib is required because the system has to load and do stuff until /usr can be mounted. Once /usr is mounted, /usr/lib and /lib are the primary places to get libraries.

/usr/ccs/lib is used because some programs were compiled with the CCS compiler and need the runtime libraries in order to work.

The (almost non-)optional X-windows (the Graphical User Interface) installation used by Solaris is contained in /usr/openwin, so you can find all the X-related libraries in /usr/openwin/lib.

/usr/ucblib is for compatibility with software written and targeted for Solaris back when it was Solaris 1.x -- it was a completely different UNIX operating system then, and had different call interfaces, namely termios. I am quite sure that you would not find much software that still requires this software. But sometimes, a piece of software written for BSD or old Linux or old Solaris will not have been ported and it needs these libraries.

/usr/xpg4/lib - I looked this up once, but I forgot.

xpg4 if for strictly Posix compliant libraries.

And for a better understanding of directories purpose under Solaris, have a look at the filesystem manual page:

Code:

man filesystem