How To Install libxft-dev on Debian 10

Learn how to install libxft-dev on Debian 10 with this tutorial. libxft-dev is FreeType-based font drawing library for X (development files)

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install libxft-dev on Debian 10.

What is libxft-dev

libxft-dev is:

Xft provides a client-side font API for X applications, making the FreeType font rasterizer available to X clients. Fontconfig is used for font specification resolution. Where available, the RENDER extension handles glyph drawing; otherwise, the core X protocol is used.

This package provides a static library and C header files.

There are three methods to install libxft-dev on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install libxft-dev Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install libxft-dev using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install libxft-dev

Install libxft-dev Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install libxft-dev using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install libxft-dev

Install libxft-dev Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install libxft-dev using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install libxft-dev

How To Uninstall libxft-dev on Debian 10

To uninstall only the libxft-dev package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove libxft-dev

Uninstall libxft-dev And Its Dependencies

To uninstall libxft-dev and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove libxft-dev

Remove libxft-dev Configurations and Data

To remove libxft-dev configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge libxft-dev

Remove libxft-dev configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove libxft-dev configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge libxft-dev

Dependencies

libxft-dev have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install libxft-dev package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.