Help Third party app installation

[Aart Koelewijn]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:49:30 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote:

> Aart Koelewijn wrote:
> 
>> On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 15:30:26 -0500, Bill Wright wrote:
>> 
>>> I am running 8.04 LTS desktop. Being a Windows user for many years I
>>> am at a loss on how to install non packaged applications. I downloaded
>>> the TAR file, decompressed it, then I am lost? What must I enter on
>>> the command line?
>> 
>> It is seldom necessary to install non packaged applications. For almost
>> any task there are suitable applications in the repostories.
>> 
>> If you really have to use a application for which you can't find
>> anything in the repostories, you will almost always find a Readme
>> and/or Install file in the toplevel directory after untaring the file.
>> Read those files, they will tell you what to do, there is no general
>> instruction for that, it depends on the kind of package, source or
>> binary.
> 
> Well there can't be a completely general instruction (just as there
> isn't in the Windows world), but for the most part:
> 
> - untar the file
> - cd to the top level of the untarred package # ./configure
> # make
> # sudo make install
> 
> (and if ./configure exists, but if fails in the "make" step, you
> probably needed to install the build-essential package first).
> 
> But really, stick to binaries - I can't imagine you're installing much
> from source on Windows.

Derek, you are assuming the tar file is the source code for something. 
This does not have to be true. I have also come across binary files, java 
source, java binary, shell scripts and others all packed in a tar or tgz 
archive. That is why I advise to go to the top level directory and read 
the Readme and/or Install file, in my experience (about 15 years) that is 
the only safe advise to give.

Aart