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4 <title>Introduction</title>
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7 <para>In this appendix the following aspects of every package
8 installed in this book are described:</para>
12 <listitem><para>the official download location for the
13 package,</para></listitem>
15 <listitem><para>what the package contains,</para></listitem>
17 <listitem><para>what each program from the package does,</para></listitem>
19 <listitem><para>what the package needs to be compiled.</para></listitem>
23 <para>Most information about these packages (especially the descriptions of
24 them) come from the man pages of those packages. We do not include
25 the entire man page, but just some key elements to make it possible to
26 understand what a program does. To get information on all details of a program,
27 please refer to its man page or info page.</para>
29 <para>Certain packages are documented in more depth
30 than others, because we just happen to know more about certain
31 packages than about others. If you think anything should be added to the
32 following descriptions, please don't hesitate to email the mailing
33 lists. We intend that the list should contain an in-depth description
34 of every package installed, but we can't do it without help.</para>
36 <para>Please note that currently only what a package does is described and not
37 why it needs to be installed. This may be added later.</para>
39 <para>Also listed are all of the installation dependencies for all the
40 packages that are installed in this book. The listings will include
41 which programs from which packages are needed to successfully compile
42 the package to be installed.</para>
44 <para>These are not running dependencies, meaning they don't tell you
45 what programs are needed to use that package's programs, just the ones
46 needed to compile it.</para>
48 <para>The dependency list can be, from time to time, outdated in regards
49 to the currently used package version. Checking dependencies takes quite a
50 bit of work, so they may lag behind a bit on the package update. But
51 often with minor package updates, the installation dependencies hardly
52 change, so they'll be current in most cases. When we upgrade to a major
53 new release, we'll make sure the dependencies are checked too.</para>