installing downloaded applications
 

I have downloaded two applications to /home/.... what do I do with them now, one is a tar the other a rpm.
Please explain very simply how I instal. Very :newbie: :)

itsjustme asked for the file names:-
file:/home/Godders/moneydance_linux_i386_jre141.tar
file:/home/Godders/compupic-5.1.1063-1.i386.rpm

tar xvf filename.tar
tar will expand the files in the tar file, usually into a new directory. cd into it and look for a README.

rpm -ivh filename.rpm
That installs an rpm file.

What are the filenames you downloaded?

gui type instructions for rpm:

basically for the rpm, just click on it. follow the directions and try installing it. take note of any errors as they may most likely be dependancy errors. you'll need to download any dependancies and install those first.

for the tarball, untar it. if in gui, just right click on it and choose "Extract here". open up a shell terminal and cd into the extracted directory. read the file called "README" or "INSTALL". one of those files will have installation instructions. normally tarballs use this set of instructions (not always though):

[user@computer home] $ ./configure
[user@computer home] $ make
[user@computer home] $ su
[user@computer home] $ make install

for the ./configure you can specify the --prefix option that tells the installation to place all packaged files for installation to be placed in the same directory. so the first command may look like this if you choose:

[user@computer home] $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/some_app

you can name some_app anything you want.

sometimes you can build an rpm out of a tarball. open up a shell terminal and cd to the directory where the tarball is. then use these commands:

[user@computer home] $ su
[user@computer home] $ rpm -ta filename.tar.gz

if the tarball you want to try to build is the only tarball in the directory you can just glob the filename:

[user@computer home] $ rpm -ta *.gz

this doesn't always work as the tarball needs specific things for rpm to create rpms and srpms for a tarball. but if it does work, it will be somewhere in /usr depending on distro. on rh 7.3 it's in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 for rpms and /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS for srpms. there will also be stuff in the other directories like BUILD that can be cleaned out (deleted). anyway you can install these rpms just like described above.

itsjustme asked for the file names:-
file:/home/Godders/moneydance_linux_i386_jre141.tar
file:/home/Godders/compupic-5.1.1063-1.i386.rpm