On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, you wrote:
> Richard Adams wrote:
> >
> > The above is correct, however just tellig someone to untar the file
> > without telling him or even warn him what he is doing is going a
> > little to far.
> >
> > tar files can will and have done damage to my system when i was a
> > green newbie many moons ago. I _still_ do the following before i
> > untar any file other than a linux kernel source tree.
> >
> > zless <file>.tar,gz all i want to see is what is in the top left hand
> > corner, which will tell me if the tar file creates its own directory
> > or just deposites all its files in the presant working directory, and
> > yes there still are still idiots who create archives like that, so be
> > warned.
> >
> > The best advice here is;
> > mkdir /tmp/newfile
> > cp file.tar.gz /tmp/newfile
> > tar xzf file.tar.gz
>
>
> Thanks Richard, I hadn't been bit by this one. Now maybe
> I can sidestep one of the pit traps. :-)
What i explaned was extream curcumstancies, normaly a tar file can be
placed say into your ftp directory, thats what i do when downloading
via ftp or via netscape.
I gave the example of /tmp/newfile to make it very clear what i
meant, now considering you read and took that advice here's a beter
way. and a more detailed explanation of howto use tar archives.
As i said my files go into /home/ftp/pub/incoming, now when the
download is complete i do, zless file.tar.gz as explained before, as
soon as i see that a new directory is created, an example would be;
zless cwkeyer-0.1.tgz
cwkeyer-0.1/^@^@^@^@
^^^^^^^^^^^^ that shows me the archive will create its own dir, i
then do;
cd /usr/local/src
tar xzf /home/ftp/pub/incoming/cwkeyer-0.1.tgz which will create;
/usr/local/src/cwkeyer-0.1
cd cwkeyer-0.1
Read the README's and INSTALL files which are "normaly" included in a
decent archive, then follow what is written, normaly someting like
the following would be applicable,
./configure
make
make install
That should then place the newly made binary(s) in thier proper
resting place.
If for instance you have an archive which will deposite binary's
striat into places like /bin /sbin etc, i firstly make sure i have
the old origanal tar archive or copy the old program binary as
prog.OLD, these sorts of archives would show in the top lefthand
corner with zless something like;
bin/@@@@@@@@@
so you would do;
cd /
tar xzf /home/ftp/pub/incoming/file.tar.gz
That will install the binarys strait to the correct place.
One thing to remember is that a system which uses RPM's can uninstall
an rpm if it proves to cause problems and will replace the old
binarys, using tar archives you need to take precausions yourself.
I use Redhat-6.0 but still get tar.gz archives from the net to install
on my system, i was a slackware user for many years (and indeed
still am on a couple of my machines) and just got used to doing it
that way.
Its always beter to be cautouis and happy, than jumping in like a
bull in a china shop and having to pay the price.
> Bob J.
--
Regards Richard
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
