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Dependencies
Programs are seldom “standalone”; rather they rely on the presence of other software components to get their work done. Common activities, such as input/output for example, are handled by routines shared by many programs. These routines are stored in what are called shared libraries, which provide essential services to more than one program. If a package requires a shared resource such as a shared library, it is said to have a depen- dency. Modern package management systems all provide some method of dependency resolution to ensure that when a package is installed, all of its dependencies are installed, too.