I am new to Linux and wanted confirmation that what I was doing when downloading, extracting, and installing was correct. I have had no problems thus far, but I need to install libraries and did not want to break anything. I am using a full install of Slackware 10.

1)Read any documentation about installation procedures

2) Download source to a home directory and extract to directory prescribed by documentation

3) If documentation specifies nothing, I extract to a directory on my home directly to read the readme or rinstall documentation about what to do next.

4) Usually, the documentation says to ./configure, make, make install and I am done.

Questions:

1) Should I extract and or install to a specific directory everytime if the documentation says nothing. Extract to tmp? Perhaps what to do here is obvious to the creator but not to me.

2) Should I extract and install libraries to a specific directory? Usually the docs say they go to /usr/lib by default. Should I specify nonetheless.

3) After installing libraries, do I need to use a command to ensure that links and dependencies are all in running order?

4) If a library is reported missing upn ./confifure, I check the Slackware package database first not to duplicate or break something. Will older or newer libraries interfere with each other. If so, what is the standard practice about installing?

Okay, that is enough for now. Thank you.

it doesnt matter where you donwload and extract to.. after a make install, the compiled files are coppies to there correct locations.. you can them detele the folders and files you downloaded and extracted.

also... just for fun, you can usually do a ./configure --help first, this will give information about different parameters you can pass to configure to change how / what is compiled....

for example... in mplayer, it is needed that ./configure --with-gui is used if you want a graphical user interface.


whenever possable, try to install from pre compiled slackware packages if you are concerned about breaking dependency's

compiling from source is famous fr beeing difficult to un-install.

Good. So all is going well. I really want to learn as much as possible. Apart from installing precompiled packages, what are the prudent steps or tested to dos / not to dos. Any directions or public information would be much obliged Thank you.

for installing from source, i would suggest you google for checkinstall and read up on it. I think you will find it will make your life easier in the long run when it comes to managing your system.

Thanks. I did what you recommended and took a look at CheckInstall. Not only is that a wise program to use but reading up on it explains a lot about compiling from source and managing your box. Very cool.