When I'm installing any program is there any particular directory where I should keep the rpm or tar.gz files and run the installation from there? or can I just run the installation from anywhere. Is the program installed where the installer is? For example, If I download a rpm file to my desktop, can I just run the installation from there, or should I save it in a certain directory?

Please help.
Thanx

some ppl may agree or disagree with what *I* do.
create a directory called tarballs in the /usr/local directory
and also a dir called rpms in the /usr/local directory
move your files (mv *.tar.gz /usr/local/tarballs -
mv *.rpm /usr/local/rpms)
now for rpms it *really* doens't matter where you install it.
for tarballs sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. so i just always dl the file to /usr/local and untar them there
(tar zxvf <name_of_file.tar.gz)
then move the tarballs to tje tarballs dir to help keep things organized and clean
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hope this gets you started!