I have fedora core 2 installed and I wanted to know about installing tar and other source files?

Question

I wanted to know how to make work .tar and .gz etc I can install .rpm but tell me how to install source files.

Answer 1

The answer above is mostly correct. The biggest problem is the root status.

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE root! In fact, don't untar/make as root. The only time you need to be root is when running "make install."

The correct set of steps is:

tar -xfz archive.tar.gz
(you can include the -v option for verbose output if you want)

cd {dir created}

./configure
make
su -c "make install"

use the su -c "make install" instead of just becoming su so that no other commands can get run. Remember, as root, you have access to all the files which can destroy your system. Use root status sparingly if you can.

Some tars don't have ./configure included. They will have instructions in the README or INSTALL files, just list the directory to see which exists and read it (less, more, your favorite editor, etc.)

Answer 2

Well..fedora core does have an integrated archiver. I bet it's ark (try typing that)

If that doesn't work. youll need to untar the file like this

tar zxvf name_of_archive.tar.gz
(note that you need to be root, or have acces to the hard drive your untaring, also the archive will disapear after this and be replaced with the actual files)

then it realy depends on what youre installing.

the common commands after untaring are

./configure (if the source pack has a configure shell file)
make
make install

still root for this.

Now, you'll need to check the install notes for each program.