Editing Dependency hell (section)

{{refimprove|date=August 2024}}

{{Short description|Colloquial term for software requiring many conflicting dependencies}}'''Dependency hell''' is a [[Colloquialism|colloquial term]] for the frustration of some software users who have installed [[Package manager|software packages]] which have [[Coupling (computer programming)|dependencies]] on specific [[Software versioning|version]]s of other software packages.<ref name="Dependency Hell">{{cite book
| title = Linux annoyances for geeks
| author = Michael Jang
| url = https://archive.org/details/linuxannoyancesf0000jang
| url-access = registration
| page = [https://archive.org/details/linuxannoyancesf0000jang/page/325 325]
| publisher = O'Reilly Media
| isbn = 9780596552244
| year = 2006
| accessdate = 2012-02-16}}</ref>

The dependency issue arises when several packages have dependencies on the same ''shared'' packages or libraries, but they depend on different and incompatible versions of the shared packages. If the shared package or library can only be installed in a single version, the user may need to address the problem by obtaining newer or older versions of the dependent packages. This, in turn, may break other dependencies and push the problem to another set of packages.