ldconfig: Path `/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' given more than once

Question

I'm running 12.10.

I'm trying to run an application that needs libglut.so.3. I installed freeglut3 and I can see the library located in /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu. But when I run the application, it tells me that it can't find the library.

When I run ldconfig -v | grep glut I get

/sbin/ldconfig.real: Path `/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' given more than once
/sbin/ldconfig.real: Path `/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu' given more than once
        libglut.so.3 -> libglut.so.3.9.0

What does it mean when it says the path is given more than once, and does this have anything to do with why the application can't find the library?

Answer 1

ldconfig.real searches /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu and /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu by default.

On my system there is a configuration file in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu.conf that included these directories, hence causing the error.

I then discovered that this file is created by the libc6 package. Thus, the /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu.conf file can be safely deleted.

When you run ldconfig --verbose again, you will see that those two directories are still indexed.