I downloaded the source to Gaim, tried to compile it but it needs a version of Glib equal to or higher than 2. I ran rpm -qa | grep glib and it gave me glib-1.2.10-10, so I need to upgrade. I went to the gtk site and had a look glib-2.4.4 but it is in a tar.gz file. They don't have rpms so I can't exactly run a simple upgrade after downloading one. So:

1. If I download and compile glib-2.4.4 then how will gaim know to use it? Which directory would I put it in? It's not like glib is a normal program so I presume /usr/local wont do.

2. Would I then just remove the old glib rpm?

3. Which directory are rpms contained in? I have been wondering...

I seem to prefer compiling things, when I try to install rpms I get all these dependancy problems. While on the topic though, how do you go about uninstalling a compiled program? Do you just rm -rf the directory?

To be honest, you are better installing from source anyway.

1. download source to /home/hal
2. unzip it: tar -xvf /home/hal/glib.tar
3. cd /home/hal/glib
4 ./configure
5. make
6 su <password>
7. make install

How will gaim know to use the library? It just will!

Which directory? I don't know to be honest, but I wouldn't worry. What you could do it search for it:
$ locate glib

Hope this helps.
Hamish