Should I rebuild the dependent library after updating the system?

Question

I have some fear when I update my system libraries. For example, I created make && make install for a custom lib (i.e. libhell , this library does not exist in the repo), which depends on libssl-dev> 0.5. Then apt offers me to upgrade libssl-dev . Should I rebuild libhell against the new libssl-dev ?

It always worked fine after upgrades and no rebuilds, but what about binary security? All the time I create my own packages on bin-dist systems, I feel like I'm doing something wrong ...

Answer 1

This is why package systems exist.

If your binary library libhell is a dynamic library (this is libhell.so common object with position-independent code), and if the libssl-dev dependency libssl-dev not changed its API (for example, if its version number has not been changed), then you do not need to recompile and reinstall libhell .

If you think your libhell depends on the changed function (or data) of libssl-dev , then you should recompile it.

Better recompile your libhell more often than necessary.

See also "Program Library"