Extracting/installing stuff

[hulkMAD]

im gonna get linux sometime and i just wanna make sure i dont screw up too bad. theres a few files that i wanna install onto linux, mainly tar.gz and tar.bz2 files. to extract and install tar.gz files, do u:

(root)
cd /tmp
tar -zxvf [tar.gz file]
./install --prefix=/opt
(user)
cd /opt/[extracted filename]
./setup
[follow instructions]

is this how u install tar.gz files and tar.bz2 files? tar.gz files seem pretty easy to install, but if its the same for the smaller-sized bz2 files, then im definitely downloading only bz2 files. does /tmp exist already and does it auto delete its files? so many ?'s, i just dont wanna start a buncha new threads. oh, and do u hafta install the thingy into /opt?

[lynchmob]

tar -zxvf works or tar.gz or .tgz files
For .bz2 the command is tar -xjvf.The -j option filters the file through bunzip2.
Files are download to your/home directory by default.I create a /home/username/download directory and put them there until I'm ready to unpack them.
Once you get the tar.gz or the tar.bz2 files unpacked look in the directory that was created for instructions,readmes,etc.
The common routine is to cd to the directory and run these commands:
./configure
make
make install
That's the simple way.It really depends on what you are installing.
HTH
lynch

[S.D.Willie]

if you want to do it the lazy way(i like it better) fire up konqueror and just right click on the .tar.gz,tar.bz2, etc file and click "extract here"

this will extract it there into its own directory. as Lynch said its usually important to read the README file but those are the usual for installing except for --prefix during ./configure

thats unless you want to go the rpm route which sometimes is good, sometimes not.

[storm2k]

i, by the way, have become a fan of checkinstall, which will create and install a rpm or deb file for your software, which will let you remove or change them with rpm or deb. it's a neat lil tool.