how to use sudo command to install .tar.gz? [duplicate]

No need to use sudo to unpack the archive. Type this in a terminal:

tar -xzf archive.tar.gz

Or you can just double-click on the archive from Nautilus (the file manager) to see what's inside. No need for command line until now.

If this archive contains something to install in the system, then sudo would be useful at one point or another. Very often, such an archive contains software that must be compiled and then installed. Typically, what you then do is as follows:

tar -xzf archive-name.tar.gz
cd archive-name
./configure
make
sudo make install

As you see, only the step actually installing the program requires superuser rights; everything else happens just in your home directory, which you own. Please do not type blindly the instructions above; first, read any documents called "README" or "INSTALLATION" that you will find in the archive.

Like January said if the file .tar.gz is owned by your user, you don't need sudo to extract the file.

To install some file *.tar.gz, you basically would do:

1. Open a console, and go to the directory where the file is

2. Type: tar -zxvf file.tar.gz

3. Read the file INSTALL and/or README to know if you need some dependencies.

Most of the times you only need to:

1. type ./configure

2. make

3. sudo make install