How to install .tar.gz lacking both ./configure and ./bin?

I want to install Chaotica https://www.chaoticafractals.com/download on Ubuntu 20.04.2. It does not contain an installation instruction. There is a README, but it contains only license and thanks, nothing on installation or launching.

I've found several instructions for using tarballs with ./configure and make, but the unpacked folder does not contain a ./configure file. Then I found instructions using bin, but there is neither a bin folder nor a bin file in the unpacked tar. Are there other ways to install? Thanks!


On Microsoft Windows such applications are called portable.

So you can simply download the archive and then run main executable as follows:

cd ~/Downloads
wget -c https://www.chaoticafractals.com/dist/chaotica_x64_v2.0.36.tar.gz
tar -xf chaotica_x64_v2.0.36.tar.gz
cd chaotica_x64_v2.0.36
./chaotica

If you want to install it to, for example, /opt, then use commands below:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/chaotica
sudo cp -ar ~/Downloads/chaotica_x64_v2.0.36/* /opt/chaotica
sudo ln -s /opt/chaotica/chaotica /usr/local/bin/chaotica

And finally create desktop-file for it:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/icons
cd ~/.local/share/icons
wget https://www.chaoticafractals.com/sites/all/themes/chaotica/favicon.ico -O chaotica.ico

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications/
cd ~/.local/share/applications/

cat <<EOF > chaotica.desktop # copy from this line to EOF, then paste
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Icon=/home/$USER/.local/share/icons/chaotica.ico
Exec=chaotica
Name=Chaotica
EOF

and then launch it from dash/menu.