Recently, I tried to install new software on my Linux system and encountered a dependency management issue. During the installation, I received an error message indicating the absence of a specific library. I attempted to manually search for and install the dependency, but that led to a chain of new dependencies that became increasingly complex. Despite my efforts, I couldn't fully resolve the issue and ended up with incomplete software. Has anyone else faced a similar challenge in dependency management and has any advice on how to approach such situations more effectively?
Package dependencies can occur again and again. Of course they should not, but they can. If it is a package dependency of the distribution itself, I would simply wait until the package maintainer fixes it. Either way, it makes sense to contact the package maintainer, especially if its a 3rd-party package. It may be a bug in the packaging, or you may be causing the error yourself, e.g. if the 3rd-party maintainer gives instructions on how to install the packages so that no major issues arise. edit Forgot to mention that dependency problems can also occur when your host system pulls its updates from a mirror that is not in sync with the main host. In that case it makes sense to wait as well. More information would be needed to provide specific help. Like which operating system is used, what package do you try to install, as well as from which repository you are retrieving your packages from.
Debian Release Notes have notes on package dependencies and instructions on how to resolve them. Is the new software you tried installing from outside Debian? Then it may not support the Debian version you have, or requires additional software from Debian contrib or non-free to be installed. APT system and dpkg have tools for examining dependency issues, you could try pinpointing what is happening.
If we talk about binary distributions (like Debian, Ubuntu, AlmaLinux, RHEL and so on), then compiling from source is not a good idea, especially when it comes to libraries. The package manager of the distribution does know nothing about the selfcompiled-unpackaged software and if one compiles and installs the wrong software from source one will likely screw up his system and in worst case makes it unstable, or it won't be able anymore to boot properly. However, if one installs the software via the package manager, the package manager can track the files that are installed by the package and it can also check wether the dependencies are met and if not it will try to resolve it for one and if that fails, then they - mostly - fail for a good reason and it is up to the admin of that system to fix it, but certainly not by installing the dependencies directly from the source ball.
