Thanks a ton. I was hoping someone would take it slow with me. Most people I ask assume I know a lot about linux already but I don't. And I'm really glad you told me how to do it in shell. I started messing around with linux because of the power I hear it possess.
Thanks again ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Rodríguez" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "newbie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2001 6:51 PM Subject: Re: [newbie] Question about installing a .tar.gz file On Wed, 2001-11-21 at 23:38, E Estes wrote: > I'm really new to linux and I have no clue what to do with these types of files. I right-clicked and opened it with "Archiver" and extracted it to a directory I made but after that point I'm simply stumped. > > Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. It depends what the file is. A "tar.gz" file is a file that is compressed (kind of like zip or sit you may already be familiar with). In order to access the files inside of a .tar.bz file, you must first unextract them. In the case of .tar.bz, it's actually been compressed twice, once using tar and once using bzip. In order to unextract this file, open up a console window, or what is called a shell (think of it as a window to your computer). While you can always use graphical programs like archiver, you'll quickly discover that in GNU/Linux, it is often much quicker and more convenient to do operations in the shell, or what is also called the command line. It is an extremely powerful tool that will save you no end of time, DOS it ain't. Anyway, in the command line, find your file named "*.tar.bz". You can try "ls *.tar.bz" or "ls [name of your file]" or even "find -name [name of your file]". Once you find it, type "tar -xvvzf [name of your file].tar.bz". This opens the program "tar" and everything after the dash are command paramters. In this case x is extract, vv for very verbose (it will print to the screen what it is doing, z will extract the file if it is bzipped as well which this one is, and f stands for force, meaning it won't prompt you for every message. Now, depending one what the file contained you'd do something differently. If the file contained a bunch of pictures, for example, you'd simply go into the new directory [file name] and be able to see them. If the file contained a program, which is probably the most common time you'd run across a "Tar Ball" or a ".tar.bz", then you need to compile the program. Simply put, this means that the program you downloaded is not a machine readable, "binary" that just installs, but the source code or the list of commands that the program is really made up of. In windows, for example, all programs are distributed as .exe binaries. In Linux, you may use binaries as well, in Mandrake they are called .rpm. Even though it takes an extra step or two, there are a lot of advantages to installing programs from source code however. The most important is, of course, the abillity to change the program to suit your needs. And while this may seem far off in your learning, it may not come that far down the road that you can see improvements you can make in a program. Second, the program, once compiled, is specifically tuned for your system. In order to install a progam from source, you need to enter the porgrams directoory, for example, by typing "cd [program's name, or name of new folder created when you extracted your file]". Then type "./configure". This runs the configuration script. The "./" is used to run a program in the current directory (it is used for security reasons. After a bunch of characters fly by, type "make". Some more characters will fly by. Now you need to go to superuser mode, type "su", and when prompted enter your root user's password. Now you can type "make install" and your program will be installed. I highly recomend you install a program called "checkinstall". (Go to http://www.freshmeat.net and do a search for "checkinstall") This will create a customized rpm for your system from the source code, which makes it easier to install and uninstall programs from source. Read the program's readme and install files for more info. Sorry if this was too elementary, I thought it might be a good idea to take it slow. There are hundreds of good books and websites with Unix/Linux basic information as well. Also, there are a number of documentation files on your system you should be aware of. 1. The man pages. WHen there is a program you would like to learn how to use, type "man program name". For example, type "man tar" o learn more about the tar program and what it can do. Also try "info tar". You can also do "man man" to learn more about the man command. Or "man ls". 2. A program called apropos, and another called whatis, try them with man. 3. The Mandrake documentation itself, included in the Documentation menu in your menus. Good luck. -Paul Rodríguez _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? 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