Orchid XP v8 schrieb:
> 
> Weirdly, most software you compile from scratch has an uncanny ability 
> to figure out what libraries are installed, no matter whether you're 
> using RPM or DEB or EMERGE or...

Have you ever had a look how that actually works?

Just look at the "configure" script for POV-Ray for an example.

That script actually goes ahead and generates source code for tiny test 
programs, and checks if they compile, link and run. For instance, if the 
script manages to compile and run a program that tries to call 
png_access_version_number(), it knows that libpng is there - and also 
what version number it is.

Of course the script first verifies that the shell is compatible with 
the command syntax used in the script, goes on to find out what compiler 
to use, and so on...

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