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 RodrÃguez [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 RodrÃguez
_
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