What does the *-dev *-dbg and *-utils mean?

Question

When I want to install a library like libxml2 on ubuntu, I enter sudo apt-get install libxml2 and enter tab key. There are several names come out such as libxml2, libxml2-dev, libxml2-dbg and libxml2-uils.

What are the full name of these suffixes? Which one do I need to install?

Answer 1

libxml2-util: This package provides xmllint, a tool for validating and reformatting XML documents, and xmlcatalog, a tool to parse and manipulate XML or SGML catalog files.

libxml2-dev: Install this package if you wish to develop your own programs using the GNOME XML library.

libxml2-debug::This package provides the debugging symbols for the library and for the utilities provided by the libxml2-utils package. Debugging symbols for the Python modules are not available

Answer of which one you need to install will be based on your need and what you want to do with package. if you just want to use it then util should be fine.