libxml2 linking error on the newest Ubuntu 26.04 LTS

[genmeblog]

When jank is downloaded from ppa on the newest Ubuntu (26.04 LTS) I get the following error:

~$ jank
jank: error while loading shared libraries: libxml2.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

There is a libxml2.so.16 on 26.04 LTS.

[jeaye]

Hi! Yeah, the Ubuntu package is built on 24.04 and is not binary-compatible with 26.04. For now, you can either symlink libxml2, as one user on Slack reported worked for them, or you can build jank from source.

Around July, I will be working to improve the portability of jank and jank-compiled programs by utilizing static linking more.

[jeaye]

We now have support for Ubuntu 26.04! Note that the PPA installation steps have changed, so take a look before trying again.