Nice message. Thanks. Mike On Tue, 18 Dec 2007, Samir M. Nassar wrote: > All package management systems keep track of what is installed and what > isn't to some degree. They also take care of dependency resolving. This > puts the manage in package management. > > Each package management system has a place where it keeps track of > installed packages. The format of this database and the location differs > from package management system to package management system. > > Reinstalling an already installed dependency is problematic if done > improperly. So if you installed something critical to your toolchain > (glibc, gcc, binutils) with one package management system and then > installed other versions you might create a situation that corrupts how > your applications compile and how they run. > > This problem is not confined to Gentoo but will occur in almost any > system. > > One can maintain several copies of software on their system, but more > care needs to be taken to isolate them so that conflicts don't happen. > Some package management systems will install parallel copies of certain > software. Each package management system has its own method of > accomplishing that goal. > > -- > Samir M. Nassar > samir.nassar at steamedpenguin.com