first time using tar and not werkin' :)
 

I try to install the flash player. In /home/myusername/tmp is the install_flash_player_7_linux.tar.gz and I read here in other forums to
$ tar -xzf install_flash_player_7_linux.tar.gz
and nothing seems to happen, not even an error. However there is no directory created as I've been told should happen, in fact I
$ ls
and the installer with .tar.gz is still there
Now --before-- trying the tar -xzf stuff I managed to screw myself up with
$ gunzip install_flash...etc...linux.tar.gz
and ended up with the file without the gz on the end but it was still a .tar file so I went to the man page (good idea??) and read it without comprehending because it looked like I wanted to use the -c option (make a new place to put the new untarred file yes? because I didn't want to overwrite something like it warned me that it might). so I took the tar file and
$ tar -c install...linux.tar
and my screen puked (the whole file I think scrolled past). After it was done, I had nothing so I tried to remove the screwed up file with rm:
$ rm -r install...linux.tar
but it's still there when I "ls" the tmp file but it DID change color (whoohoo) and I think maybe now that's an empty subdirectory but I went to man rm and didn't want to risk using -d option because in my hands, might somehow wipe out my /home/myusername/tmp directory and that's not what I want to do (other good stuff in there).
I re-downloaded the .tar.gz file and now it's sitting in my tmp directory.
"Alex, I'll take Newbie Screwups for $500."
(you answer here)
"What is, What did I do wrong and did I somehow not do enough research??"
My UNIX classes at school don't start until the fall here in the USA. :)
--gaviidae

Your original tar -xzf command looks correct (and if you don't enable verbose mode with a -v tar won't report anything unless it finds an error), so try redownloading the file and doing tar -xzvf <file>. BTW tar -c is only for when you want to create a new tar file with other files in it.

the -verbose option made it list all the files that were packaged with that .tar.gz file. I assume that that means i have "unpackaged" them but there is supposed to be a cirectory created called /install_flashplayer
I don't see it. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.
Maybe tar worked fine and I'm just not finding where it put my installer?
should I go back to / and ls and look there? Because I tried the
cd /install_flashplayer
It's not a directory (but it should be)
thx
gaviidae

cd /install_flashplayer would imply that /install_flashplayer was created as a subdirectory of the root directory, which is probably not what happened. Did you just try cd install_flashplayer (note no leading slash) from wherever you extracted the tat file?

Yeah tried it, no such directory or file.
I untarred it where it was, /home/username/tmp
if I ls while under tmp it shows two files that have always been there (dunno what they do) and the bad .tar file and the re-downloaded .tar.gz file that I (hopefully) untarred.
Flash's site says (just like someone here said in answer to an install Mozilla question) that a new directory will be created called
install_flashplayer_7_linux
and it says Navigate to it (which I can't) and then tell it to run the installer with
./flashplayer-installer
I've even tried going everywhere with cd and just randomly typing the installer command.
So I guess I'm still not sure if tar worked.
gaviidae

$ tar -xvjf MPlayer-1.0pre5.tar.bz2
$ cd Mplayer-1.0pre5/
$ ./configure

This here was another example I found on another forum (newbie wanted to install mplayer).
I noticed the person placed a / at the end of the new file name.
Ah
In my other terminal, I did just what this guy did and it only works if I don't do another command like looking at the directions in vi :)
I had to tar, then cd with a slash after the filename, and then the installer file worked.
Whew.
thx for the help, I have to close my browser now Miller.
--gaviidae

cd install_flashplayer_7_linux you will know when you are there because the prompt will change then
./flashplayer-installer
you can see what I mean by;
mkdir test
cd test