What does a -devel package mean?

[duanecu]

What does it mean when you see a package called -devel on the end of the name?

[axelseap]

-devel packages usually contain the headers or other stuff that's necessary for compiling programs which depend on that package so if you don't do that you don't need them, usually.

[tox_yray]

You could also use this, as a programmer, to use parts of code that are already done by other developpers in your program. (This is actually the process that creates dependencies).

Like axelseap said, if you don't know what it is, you don't need it. And if you ever need it, yum will handle that for you.

[duanecu]

I thank you all for answering my question, but I still just don't have a very basic understanding of those -devel packages.

For example: I now see I have two packages in my yum check-update listing for gtk2.i386 and also gtk2-devel.i386. So could I just use yum and remove gtk2-devel.i386 (yum remove gtk2-devel.i386) and leave gtk2.i386 installed with no harm to my Gimp, F-SPot, GAIM, etc usage?

[Seve]

Hello:
I would not remove any packages that were installed with the original installation. Those are most likely needed by some package(s)
You could try and do a
yum remove package-devel-name
and see what is dependent on it, if you like. Just don't answer yes as it may remove packages that are actually needed by the system.

Seve