.tgz?
 

How do I unpack a .tgz file?

read the tar manual and try tar zxvf yourtargunzipedfile.tgz (z like zip, x like X-tract and v like verbose), it's work with .tar.gz file too ; for .tar.bz2 file use tar jxvf luke !

I see you are on a Slack install, so it might be a slackware package, so as root
installpkg /path/to/tarball.tgz
you can actually check if it is a tarballed source or pre-compiled binaries for Slack by running
tar tvfz /path/to/tarball.tgz
if it is source wrapped into tgz run
tar xfvz /path/to/tarball.tgz to unpack it and seek farther instructions on installation by reading README/INSTALL files taht might be included with it

1st off right now im on Redhat 9 + I tried -zxvf but it didnt work

so its not a real tgz file try xvf, gunzip it or bzip it or xvfj

*sigh* brice2nice - have you ever used Slackware? A .tgz package is almost always (not 100% but close) almost always a Slackpack that is installed iwith 'installpkg' - one command (2 counting su): 'installpkg fooapp'. Which is all explained in that wonderful book I linked you to, SnowSurfAir.

If you're trying to install it Red Hat I'll say straight up that I *haven't* used Red Hat so I dunno. I suspect it won't work - at least not without a 'tgz2rpm' if it exists, like Slack uses 'rpm2tgz'.

No I nerver use a slack but snowsurfair doesnt tell if or not installpkg works.

To explode a RPM and get the the thing inside use rpm2cpio with cpio :

rpm2cpio plop.rpm | cpio -idv

True. :)

And cool - I didn't know about that command. I should learn more about RPM stuff - at least the various conversion tools. But that's not going to help with the tgz. For that, do 'explodepkg', I guess, though I've never had the need to use it.

well the xvf unpacked it lettme try somethin and if that dont work Ill try installpkg

Just type 'explodepkg'?

*just for the record* installpkg didnt work neither did explodepkg

Didn't work? What was the error message?

And, no, you need to specify the filename of what you want to explode as an argument. 'explodepkg stubborn.tgz'

I think it is usefully to learn more about deb package :)

SnowSurfAir, you should go back to where you got the .tgz file and see if there's an md5sum or GPG signature so you can check the validity of the file. A Slackware .tgz package should untar with the 'tar -xzvf' command, but it probably won't install correctly on your redhat system. So when you go back to where you got the file, see if they (or someone else) has a .rpm or a .tar.gz file.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

[edit] BTW installpkg won't work in redhat either. It's a Slackware-specific command [/edit]