What's the difference of libcurl.dylib and libcurl.3.dylib?

Question

I want to use the libcurl in my XCode project on Mac. But I find there three lib curl dynamic libraries. Namely, they are libcurl.dylib / libcurl.3.dylib / libcurl.4.dylib.

I find there are a lot of other libraries on Mac which also have the multiple version, in the same way as libcurl.

So what's the difference with those versions library, and which one should I use?

Answer 1

Isn't each one a soft link to the more specific version? Example libXXX -> libXXX.2 -> libXXX.2.3. If you always want the latest libXXX then you link to libXXX. But if you need a specific version you link to that specific version.

As you update OS X or Xcode, these libraries and their soft links get updated but you don't need to change which library reference you have.

Run a terminal window and do ls -l /usr/lib for lots of examples of this.