installation of an extension of .tar.gz

Herbie07 · 05-11-2011, 07:46 AM

Hi guys,
am a window user so am gonna be honest am new to Ubuntu though for several months i've been trying to learn it! I've been looking for this downloading software so i found it with an extension of .tar.gz

!! It creeped me out because like in Windows i expected "next".."next".. then "finish"..goosh it was something else

!So i googled it and got some pretty confused answers

! Plz may somebody explain it to me how to instal it to my new "Ubuntu Deskop",

in a good understanding layman newbie language!

I love Ubuntu!

Thanx, i'll appreciate

Herbie07

sycamorex · 05-11-2011, 07:51 AM

Hi,

First, make sure that the program you're trying to install is not in ubuntu repositories. In most cases it's recommended to install from the official repositories. Open Synaptic and try to find the program you want.

If you can't find it, is there a .deb package available for the program?

If not, the most generic instructions for installing .tar.gz would be:

Code:

tar xvzf *.tar.gz
cd name_of_the_new_program_directory
./configure
make
sudo make install

HTH

EDIT: It's always important to read a README/INSTALL file included in the package. There may be some specific instructions for installation. Anyway, it's hard to say, what program are we talking about here?

bsdunix · 05-11-2011, 07:59 AM

.tar.gz files are compressed documents which typically contain software source files which are used to build binary application files. Usually there is either a README or INSTALL document included that explains how to build and install the application.

Here's some information I found that will help explain better:

File compression

How to install Linux / UNIX *.tar.gz tarball file