Installing a dev package vs non-dev package

[EAM]

I think that I understand that if you want to compile a program that uses a library you need the dev files and that if you want to run a program that uses a library you need the non-dev package(?). Are there differences in the libraries or just that the dev package includes headers and other development files? Would I just be able to install just dev packages for any libraries I might need for both purposes? I'm still trying to figure out exactly which package to install when I come upon an error that says I need a certain library so any insight would be very helpful and quite nice. Thank you.

[rich_roast]

I think the following is a decent rule of thumb: development packages are so called because they are intended for developers, i.e., people who are going to be compiling source code. So if you're error is coming up in the course of compiling something, then you'll need the dev package. On the other hand, if it's a compiled program that won't launch because it can't find libfoo.so, then you just need the normal libfoo package.

[ffeingol]

The dev version normally only include the 'c' header files (files named xxx.h) and don't include the actual library files.