For zlib, I doubt you'll have problems, but this is not something you should do lightly.Īlternatively, install a newer version of the library somewhere in your home directory and use it only for the particular program that needs it.

Note that installing newer versions of a library could potentially cause incompatibilities. sudo apt-get install build-essential fakerootĭpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc -b -nc ) from the Ubuntu website, then compile that version as a package. You can download the source package (all three files. The version of the zlib1g package in Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) is 1.2.3.4, and the version in Ubuntu 12.10 (quantal) is 1.2.7. If you have better things to do with your time, stick with a released distribution.)

(There are “rolling release” distributions, where you spend all your time upgrading to the next version of every piece of software. It sounds more complicated than it actually is.Ī given release of a distribution ships with a given version of each program. There are numerous tutorials on how to setup your own package building environment and build your first. Your next option would be to either find a 3rd party repo with a newer version of zlib1g included, or download the source package and build your own. Once you've set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, you can invoke VCFtools to try them out. This would allow you the ability to try it out, without having to install it on your system just yet. You could fairly easily download the latest version of zlib, 1.2.8, and compile it, and then set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH, temporarily, to point to your compiled versions of these libraries. So I'm stuck at that particular version, or there isn't a newer one available. To update it: $ apt-get install zlib1gĠ upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 15 not upgraded. So it would appear that the package is actually called zlib1g. Ii zlib1g:amd64 1:1.2.7.dfsg-13 amd64 compression library - runtime $ apt-get install zlibīut before we do that command let's double check that the package is in fact called zlib: $ dpkg -l |grep zlib I would first see if there is a newer version of zlib in one of the Ubuntu/Debian repositories which contain all the software that you can install (prebuilt) for Ubuntu/Debian and other OSes that derive from either of those 2 distros. zlib is just another locally installed package on your Ubuntu box.

Ubuntu install zlib