FreeBSD/ppc troubles and old files - safe to remove?

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

Hello,

I recently found out that my troubles compiling the ruby port was
related to an old (stale) library file in /usr/lib. Removing that file
allowed ruby to compile.

However, I have problems compiling other ports.
When I check a few directories on my machine, Inotice that I have other
old files layiing around. Here is /lib as an example:
root at kg-g4# ls -l /lib
total 6732
drwxr-xr-x  2 root  wheel      512 Jan 14 22:24 geom
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    47416 Jan  7 12:27 libalias.so.5
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel     9868 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_cuseeme.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel     8764 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_dummy.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    12188 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_ftp.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    10968 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_irc.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    11180 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_nbt.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    11000 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_pptp.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel     9756 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_skinny.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    12188 Jan  7 12:27 libalias_smedia.so
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    16084 Nov  5  2005 libatm.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    16084 Jan  7 12:27 libatm.so.4
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    18104 Jan  7 12:27 libbegemot.so.2
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   143252 Jan  7 12:28 libbsdxml.so.2
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    61264 Jan  7 12:27 libbsnmp.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   989328 Nov  5  2005 libc.so.6
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel  1145336 Jan  7 12:27 libc.so.7
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    70012 Jan  7 12:28 libcam.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    36968 Jan  7 12:27 libcrypt.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel  1179712 Nov  5  2005 libcrypto.so.4
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel  1396692 Jan  7 12:30 libcrypto.so.5
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    27048 Jan  7 12:28 libdevstat.so.5
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   105180 Jan  7 12:28 libedit.so.5
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    19712 Jan  7 12:28 libgeom.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    13196 Nov  5  2005 libgpib.so.1
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    29032 Jan  7 12:28 libipsec.so.2
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    11452 Jan  7 12:28 libipx.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    14060 Jan  7 12:28 libkiconv.so.2
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    27108 Jan  7 12:27 libkvm.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   140556 Jan  7 12:27 libm.so.4
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    56796 Jan  7 12:27 libmd.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   298988 Jan  7 12:27 libncurses.so.6
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   169244 Jan  7 12:28 libpcap.so.4
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   146644 Jan  7 12:28 libpthread.so.2
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel   222476 Jan  7 12:28 libreadline.so.6
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    11452 Jan  7 12:27 libsbuf.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    16232 Jan  7 12:28 libufs.so.3
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    54208 Nov  5  2005 libutil.so.5
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    58348 Jan  7 12:27 libutil.so.6
-r--r--r--  1 root  wheel    76312 Jan  7 12:28 libz.so.3

Notice that several files have an older cousin dated "Nov 5 2005"?
Now the question: is it safe to remove those files?
-- 
Regards,
Torfinn Ingolfsen,
Norway