i m confused with make, make all ./configure etc. when i try to install software thru source things go straight but at the end things are lost.no software goes to install. plz tell me what to do i want to install lots of software on linux. its very disgusting having dump of software but not installed.

what distro are you using? you might not even need to use source. in general, the order of the commands are ./configure, make, then "make install" as root.

What are you trying to install and what are the exact problems you are facing. Post any steps you make and any error messages you get. Also take a look at the installing software section in the LQ Wiki.

follow here

http://www.gnulinuxclub.org/index.ph...=146&Itemid=31

Usually, software configured using autoconf (./configure) will typically install under the base directory /usr/local (/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, etc). If you want to change that, you can add a prefix option to the configure command (./configure --prefix=<my prefered path>). To get more information out of the .configure script (as to default locations, etc), type "./configure --help |less". This will let you see what options are available. Don't bother with the generic options that aren't specific to your program, and you probably won't need to change any of the compile options.

As a general rule of thumb, I keep all distribution packaged (.rpm) files in /usr, and all source built files in /usr/local. Makes for easier maintenance.