I understand that source based distributions like Gentoo or Slackware do not need *-dev versions of programs. They include the source code as well as header files for compiling everything locally.But I never saw *-dev packages in Arch Linux, although it is package based. I ran across lots of *-dev packages in other distributions.
Why are there no -dev packages in Arch Linux?
arch linux;package management;compiling;source
The -dev packages usually contain header-files, examples, documentation and such, which are not needed to just running the program (or use a library as a dependency). They are left out to save space.ArchLinux usually just ships these files with the package itself. This costs a bit more disk space for the installation but reduces the number packages you have to manage.