This is one of the most common newbie questions, and one that gave me fits
before I figured out the "secret".
First off, I suggest rpm's instead of doing it by source. RPM's are just plain
easier. But if you're stuck on source, or need the source for some reason...
Untar the file. ("tar -xvzf the_program.tar.gz")
Go into the directory that the above command created (usually "cd the_program")
Read the readme file in there. It contains more detailed instructions. However
99% of the programs follow these procedures:
Type "./configure" and wait for it to configure
Type "make" and wait for it to compile
Type "su" to go to root
Type "make install" to install the program
And then your done.
If you get an error during the ./configure stage, it's probally because you
dont' have the library it needs. You can try searching for it at rpmfind.net,
and sometimes that'll solve the problem. The easiest way to not get those kind
of errors is to just install ALL the developmental libraries during
installation. It'll solve so many headaches in the long run.
> Anybody know where I can find some good documentation on compiling
> different sorts of programs from the source-code. I wanna try to
> compile and install gaim as my first try.
--
Anthony
http://binaryfusion.net
Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
