Ok suppose that I do a make install to install my application.

Where or how can I figure out the path where the application resides. Does the Makefile tell me this! Usually, a README or some type of file tells me where the application is, but this application DID not come w/ anything

Thanks

The make file should tell you where all the files were installed to if you ran "make install". If you didn't the the files should be in the directory you ran make from.

Are u sure that you have to make something.
Many download are binaries. E.g.,

*bz2,*zip,*gzip,*tar,*Z,*rpm are all binaries
and don't need make.

What is the extension of your code? In fact, what is it?
So others can help.

Sheng-Chieh

?bz.2?

bz2, zip, gz, tar etc may all be binary files, but that's not the same as it being a binary executable. It just means they're made of binary numbers instead of ascii characters. If the compressed binary file contains source code (which most downloads will be) then you will still need to compile (i.e. 'make') the binary executable from that code.

And in this case the extension is irrelevant...he's already extracted the files and has made them, he just wants to know where they are.

And the easiest way to do that is to type:
most likely it's somewhere under /usr/local

Yeah, a Bzip2 archive.

Probilibities (sp?) are high that you downloaded a

<application>.tar.bz2

file. Correct?

Then something like

bunzip <application>.tar <application>.tar.bz2 (uncompress)
tar -xvf <application> <application>.tar (unpack)

should get you started. In that dirctory or new subdirectory it created,
you should find a README.* file. Follow their directions. If tar
extracted it somewhere else, look at the file names that tar listed
(or find it using whereis or find). And then,

cd <new directory> (change directory)
ls (find the README.* file)

Sheng-Chieh

p.s. There is a way to bunzip and tar at the same time. Forgot
the command.

That'll be:
j is for bunzip, if it's a tgz or tar.gz file substitute a z for the j.

Or tar xvfj <filename> tar.bz2

the command is tar -xvjf where -j stands for bzip2 compression or tar -xvzf with -z for gzip

to get something straightened out here:

tar stands (is short) for tape archive and is used to ...archive files (or whole trees of files)
gzip gz bz2 Z cpio zip arj ...are all different compression programs - or more exactly: these are the file-endings used to make it visible to _you_ with what kind of compression the so named files where created/compressed...

tar is used to put whole trees of files together into just one file - this is then compressed - to save space.

thus the names foo.tar.bz2 or foo.tar.gz or foo.tgz indicate compressed trees of files.

These are used to distribute installable binaries as well as to distribute source-code.

rpm and deb on the other hand contain mostly binaries - for use with different distributions of linux.

That is why you cannot tell whats in it just by the name a file has.

To the original question:

if you compile something - you first need to configure the source-code which is to be compiled.
For that you use the command ./configure from the top of the source-tree and that is the point where you tell make how to compile it and where exactly to install which file.
try the command: ./configure --help | less and you will see all the options you can give to configure as well as the defaults - if you just say ./configure
That will tell you, which file is to be installed where (really it is just copied there).

You just switched the options around...it's the same command I gave.

Nothing like trying to confuse a newbie...

Not quite. configure is an entirely optional script omitted by some major projects (mplayer, I seem to remember, and something I installed yesterday but I've forgotten what). Not all developers use the autoconf system, therefore configure is not always present.

...Komakino:

to your first one:

I'm not always online - I was reading the thread and the last I read was the entry of shengchieh...
then I got offline - wrote what you see here - and posted it without checking if somebody else had responded in the meantime - sorry. I was not trying to be wiser than someone who alredy answered correctly!

to your second one:

I know this! (running and having built LFS)
But there seemed to be a little confusion here and I tried to keep it simple - after all - the vast majority of programs are compiled with the help of a configure-script (MPlayer being among them)

Believe me - I was not about to put anybody off!

Sorry, I'm not trying to be pedantic! I've just seen so many threads where people say "Error, help!! bash: configure: command not found!!!" because they're under the false assumption that configure is an integral part of installing linux software, or that it's akin to 'make' as a seperate utility rather than just a script.

I see your point - I will eigther be precise or won't say anything at all from this day forth...