How to compile source code from a tarball? [duplicate]

I have downloaded tar.gz files. But I don't know how to install it. How do I install this kind of file?

Solution 1:

The first thing you need to do is extract the files from inside the tar archive to a folder. Let's copy the files to your desktop. You can extract an archive by right-clicking the archive file's icon inside your file browser and pressing the appropriate entry in the context menu. Extracting the archive should create a new folder with a similar name. e.g. program-1.2.3. Now you need to open your terminal and navigate to that directory using the following command:

cd /home/yourusername/Desktop/program-1.2.3

Make sure you read a file called INSTALL, INSTALL.txt, README, or something similar if one was extracted. You can check if such a file exists from the terminal by using the ls command. The file can be opened and read with the command:

xdg-open INSTALL

Where INSTALL is the name of your file. This file will contain the right steps to follow to continue the installation process. Usually, the three "classical" steps are:

./configure
make
sudo make install

You may also need to install some dependencies if, for example, running configure prompted you with an error listing which dependencies you are missing.

You can also use checkinstall instead of make install.

Remember that your mileage may vary.

Solution 2:

You cannot "install" a .tar.gz file or .tar.bz2 file. .tar.gz files are gzip-compressed tarballs, compressed archives like .zip files. .bz2 files are compressed with bzip2. You can extract .tar.gz files using:

tar xzf file.tar.gz

Similarly you can extract .tar.bz2 files with

tar xjf file.tar.bz2

If you would like to see the files being extracted during unpacking, add v:

tar xzvf file.tar.gz

Even if you have no Internet connection, you can still use Ubuntu's package management system, just download the .deb files from http://packages.ubuntu.com/. Do not forget to download dependencies too.

For an easier way to install packages offline, see the question How can I install software offline?.

Solution 3:

How you compile a program from a source

Open a console
Use the command cd to navigate to the correct folder. If there is a README file with installation instructions, use that instead.
Extract the files with one of the commands
- If it's tar.gz use tar xvzf PACKAGENAME.tar.gz
- if it's a tar.bz2 use tar xvjf PACKAGENAME.tar.bz2
./configure
make
sudo make install (or with checkinstall)

Download a package from the software sources or the software center.

If you install a package via the software sources and not downloading the package on your own, you will get new updates to that package and install them via the Update Manager.

You could just install MYPACKAGE by typing in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install MYPACKAGE

or by using the software center and searching for MYPACKAGE. But if it's not there go with the source.

Solution 4:

This is only for .tar.* files which have the code pre-compiled but packed into a tar file.

Okay, this is a fairly challenging task for a beginner, but just follow my instructions, and it should be fine.

First off, download the .tar.* file, and save it. Don't open it. (In these examples, I'll be installing the Dropbox Beta build, because I was going to install it anyway, so I figured that I might as well document the installation.)

After you've downloaded your file, (assuming that you saved it to Downloads,) type the following:

cd Downloads
sudo cp dropbox-lnx.x86_64-1.5.36.tar.gz /opt/

NOTE: use the name of whatever file you downloaded. (e.g., for the Firefox Nightly 19.0a1 64-bit build, you would type sudo cp firefox-19.0a1.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2 /opt/)

Now, change to the /opt/ directory, extract the program, and remove the old file:

cd /opt/
sudo tar -xvf dropbox-lnx.x86_64-1.5.36.tar.gz
sudo rm -rf dropbox-lnx.x86_64-1.5.36.tar.gz

(again, use the name of the downloaded file. Don't forget the extension.)

Okay, check to see what the extracted folder is called:

ls -a

you'll get something like this:

james@james-OptiPlex-GX620:/opt$ ls -a
.  ..  .dropbox-dist
james@james-OptiPlex-GX620:/opt$

Okay, in our example, we installed Dropbox, and the only folder there is called .dropbox-dist. That's probably the folder we want, so plug that in to the next step (add a / to the end, since it's a folder.):

sudo chmod 777 .dropbox-dist/

Okay, it's now marked as executable, so it's time to create a symbolic link (this is what allows you to run it from the Terminal):

sudo ln -s /opt/.dropbox-dist/ /usr/bin/dropbox

NOTE: this is sudo ln -s /opt/{FOLDER_NAME}/ /usr/bin/{PROGRAM_NAME}!!! Be sure that {PROGRAM_NAME} is replaced with the simplified, lower-case version of the program's name (e.g., for Firefox Nightly, type firefox-nightly; for the uTorrent server, type utserver. Whatever you type here will be the command that you use whenever running the program from the Terminal. Think of /usr/bin/ as like the PATH variable on Windows systems.)

Okay, you're done. The program is now installed and runnable from the Terminal.
What's this? You say you want to run it from the launcher, AND you want it to have an icon? No problem!

This part is fairly simple:

gksu gedit /usr/share/applications/dropbox.desktop

NOTE: If you're installing OVER a previous installation, use ls -a /usr/share/applications and search for pre-existing .desktop file. Plug that file's name in instead.

Now, here's where you create the icon. Here's good template; edit it appropriately.

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Firefox Nightly
Comment=Browse the World Wide Web
GenericName=Web Browser
Keywords=Internet;WWW;Browser;Web;Explorer
Exec=firefox-nightly
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=/opt/firefox/icons/mozicon128.png
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;WebBrowser;
MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml+xml;application/xml;application/rss+xml;application/rdf+xml;image/gif;image/jpeg;image/png;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;x-scheme-handler/ftp;x-scheme-handler/chrome;video/webm;application/x-xpinstall;
StartupNotify=true
Actions=NewWindow;

[Desktop Action NewWindow]
Name=Open a New Window
Exec=firefox-nightly -new-window
OnlyShowIn=Unity;

You may want to leave off the MimeType option completely. That could be very bad if you didn't.

Now, click "Save", close it out, and you're in business!