How to install Linux / UNIX *.tar.gz tarball files
Q. I’m new to Linux. Over few days I found lots software distributed as .tar.gz file. How do I install tar.gz files under Linux?
A. tar.gz also known as tarball, an archive format for electronic data and software. Most Linux tarball contains a source code for software. If you are new to Linux I recommend using apt-get, rpm and yum command to install all binary packages.
Tarballs are a group of files in one file. Tarball files have the extension .tar.gz, .tgz or .tar.bz2. Most open source software use tarballs to distribute programs/source codes.
# 1: Uncompress tarball
To uncompress them, execute the following command(s) depending on the extension:
$ tar zxf file.tar.gz
$ tar zxf file.tgz
$ tar jxf file.tar.bz2
$ tar jxf file.tbz2
Now change directory
$ ls
$ cd path-to-software/
# 2: Build and install software
Generally you need to type 3 commands as follows for building and compiling software:
# ./configure
# make
# make install
Where,
- ./configure will configure the software to ensure your system has the necessary functionality and libraries to successfully compile the package
- make will compile all the source files into executable binaries.
- Finally, make install will install the binaries and any supporting files into the appropriate locations.
# 3: Read INSTALL / README file
Each tarball comes with installation and build instructions. Open INSTALL or README file for more information:
$ vi INSTALL
Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates.
You can Email this page to a friend.
Related Other Helpful FAQs:
- Install PHP 5 in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
- Ubuntu Linux: How do I install .deb packages?
- PHP Linux installation or php upgrade howto
- Howto: Firefox Install Multimedia Player VLC with plug-in
- Ubuntu Linux install or add php gd support to Apache
Discussion on This FAQ
Leave a Reply
We encourage your comments, and suggestions. But please stay on topic, be polite, and avoid spam. Thank you very much for stopping by our site!
June 25th, 2007 at 9:28 am
I have also got the same problem not able to installed linux
December 11th, 2007 at 12:19 am
where do i put this code???????
i hate linux, and i dont want to….
all i see is people saying yeah the command/code to do this is so&so, but they never say where to put it!!!!
can someone email me, step by step process (with pictures, if you can) of how to install tar.gz files onto linux please…
my email is trenta91@gmail.com
Thank you
December 29th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
What then if the “make” and then “make install”
commands do not work?
December 30th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Ben,
You need to install all development packages and compliers.