What does the -devel value mean when installing the library?

Question

I read several readmes, and they contain some packages with "-devel" and some without them. What is the difference?

sudo yum install gcc (vs) sudo yum install pcre-devel 

What happens if I install "sudo yum install pcre" instead?

Answer 1

Devel libraries typically contain development and debugging headers that are not needed for the end-user runtime. These debugging headers and resources are used to develop library-based applications; rather than just running applications that require a library. If you install the package without -devel, it sets only the end-user runtime, not the development headers and debugging symbols.