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Hi, i running Linux Mint 5 and ordered a CD with linux programs. When I got the CD I found tar.gz files in directories. I doubled clicked on the tar.gz files and the Archive Manager dialogue opened. That was fine but I don't know what a Archive Manager dialogue box is or what it is used for. I saw 2 files/directories in the Archive Manager window and the dialogue box changed names to the ones of the files/directories. This is getting very strange, I thought to myself. I double clicked on the directory and in the left hand side of the window came up a number of files, one of them being README. Great, I thought, the answer lies within. Right clicking on the README file brought up Open Files dialogue box with Available Application box at the top and Recent Applications in the middle, with a line for Application near the bottom. Nothing was in any of these boxes, so I cancelled and it close - leaving me with the Archive Manager and the files/directories I had seen before. You know, I have absolutely no idea what I just explained or what I am supposed to do to get the programs from .tar.gz onto my hard drive in some form of a program I can use. I must also let you know, I am just a week old in Linux and am greener than the grass. So if any wise person wishes to advise me and point me in the right direction, could you please be kind and slow and explain everything as if you were explaining it to an imbacil. I have no idea of linux or the terminology or even have got my head around the concept of Linux. Thank you.
Well, uh, you don't need to order any additional software at all, if you have Internet access (by this post I'm judging you do..) you can just install the software you need with your system's package manager (look around in the menus).
But if you REALLY want to install something from source..:
Code:
tar zxf <package>.tar.gz
cd <package>
./configure
make
su -c 'make install'
Not everything that comes in .tar.gz format is source code. After running tar, look in the folder to see if maybe there is an installation script, instructions, etc.
But--as already stated--always try the package manager first.
tar.gz files are a compressed bundle of one or more files. These files can be anything, that a filesystem can handle. It is quite similar to the concept of ZIP files on Windows (and other systems).
Whatever data is contained in a compressed archive (be it tar.gz, zip, bz2 or whatever) has to be uncompressed before you can use it.
When uncompressed, figure out what kind of files these are - executables, installers, README, etc.
The Archive Manager is a handy tool that allows you view the contents of an archive file, without unpacking it.
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