I want to compile something which requires gtk+ 2.16 or greater.

I could compile it into its own location (e.g., /opt/gtk+2), as
opposed to upgrading the system gtk+2, but for reasons that you
probably aren't interested in, I don't want to do that if I can
possibly avoid it.

So before I risk clobbering my system, has anyone else here attempted
doing that? If so, any words of wisdom?

Thanks.
Jim

Dropline Gnome 2.26 provides gtk+2-2.16 on top of Slackware 12.2. That

On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:01:02 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:

I want to compile something which requires gtk+ 2.16 or greater.

I could compile it into its own location (e.g., /opt/gtk+2), as
opposed to upgrading the system gtk+2, but for reasons that you
probably aren't interested in, I don't want to do that if I can
possibly avoid it.

So before I risk clobbering my system, has anyone else here attempted
doing that? If so, any words of wisdom?

Thanks.

Dropline Gnome 2.26 provides gtk+2-2.16 on top of Slackware 12.2. That
works for me; YMMV.
Thanks for the pointer, I haven't looked at dropline in a year or three.

Also, it looks like gtk+2-2.18 is available for use as part of the
"unstable" branch of several distributions- including Dropline,
Debian, ArchLinux, etc.
I considered trying 2.18, but was trading off its newness vs. the

If you are to test it, then it is always a good idea to make backups
before making major changes to your system. That way, you have an easy
method to restore your system to a known working state.
Thanks; I think in this case removepkg'ing the updates and

On 2009-10-19 at 13:06 ADT, Douglas Mayne <doug at (no spam) localhost.localnet> wrote:
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:01:02 -0300, Jim Diamond wrote:

I want to compile something which requires gtk+ 2.16 or greater.

I could compile it into its own location (e.g., /opt/gtk+2), as
opposed to upgrading the system gtk+2, but for reasons that you
probably aren't interested in, I don't want to do that if I can
possibly avoid it.

So before I risk clobbering my system, has anyone else here attempted
doing that? If so, any words of wisdom?

Thanks.

Dropline Gnome 2.26 provides gtk+2-2.16 on top of Slackware 12.2. That
works for me; YMMV.
Thanks for the pointer, I haven't looked at dropline in a year or three.

Also, it looks like gtk+2-2.18 is available for use as part of the
"unstable" branch of several distributions- including Dropline,
Debian, ArchLinux, etc.
I considered trying 2.18, but was trading off its newness vs. the
requirements of the software.

If you are to test it, then it is always a good idea to make backups
before making major changes to your system. That way, you have an easy
method to restore your system to a known working state.
Thanks; I think in this case removepkg'ing the updates and
installpkg'ing the original Slackware packages might be the way to
go. (But perhaps you have knowledge to the contrary.)

Cheers.
Jim

You're probably right- that is, if you are very careful in limiting what

I want to compile something which requires gtk+ 2.16 or greater.

I could compile it into its own location (e.g., /opt/gtk+2), as
opposed to upgrading the system gtk+2, but for reasons that you
probably aren't interested in, I don't want to do that if I can
possibly avoid it.

So before I risk clobbering my system, has anyone else here attempted
doing that? If so, any words of wisdom?

On 2009-10-19, Jim Diamond <Jim.Diamond at (no spam) nospam.AcadiaU.ca> wrote:
I want to compile something which requires gtk+ 2.16 or greater.

I could compile it into its own location (e.g., /opt/gtk+2), as
opposed to upgrading the system gtk+2, but for reasons that you
probably aren't interested in, I don't want to do that if I can
possibly avoid it.

So before I risk clobbering my system, has anyone else here attempted
doing that? If so, any words of wisdom?


Sure, it's possible, and while it's not trivial, it's not too
terribly difficult either. Theoretically, gtk is backwards
compatible, but in practice, that's not always the case. For
the most part, it's a pretty safe bet though.