hello all. I've been downloading a few packages from linuxpackages.net and they all seem to be in this format:

'filename.tgz.tar'

How do I turn them into just .tgz so I can install them? Also, I have been having some bother extracting stuff using ark. It tells me I do not have permission to write to my home directory! Any ideas?

Many thanks

number 1, ark is kindof a lame program (as in, it doesn't always do the right thing for me). If you want to untar something, it's easy enough to just type tar -xf <filename> and watch the magic. tar -xzf is for gzip format tarballs and tar -xjf is for bzip2 format tarballs.

number 2, you have to identify what type of file filename.tgz.tar is. Use the file command. (file filename.tgz.tar) if it comes back saying "gzip compressed data" or something along those lines, just change the extension. If it says that it's a "GNU Tar Archive" or some variation of that, then try typing tar -tf filename.tgz.tar and see what files it contains. If it's got the files you need, it's already for extraction, just tar -xf it. If it lists something like filename.tgz then tar -xf if, and then tar -xzf it.

Aaron

Try to rename package to 'filename.tgz'.

Make sure when you 'Save as' the programs from your browser, to select *all files* instead of something like *Winrar Archive*, or *.tar Archive*.

Or just rename the files to .tgz
mv filename.tgz.tar filename.tgz

I've had this problem when occasionally downloading .tgz files using windows, with winzip installed. winzip mangles the filename, adding .tar. Just change the file name to .tgz. Incidentally, .tar.gz and .tgz are the same thing. I have used slackware installpkg to install non-slackware packages that came as .tar.gz, just by changing the suffix to .tgz, then installpkg will handle them.

that did the trick. renaming them to just .tgz. I have been downloading all that stuff using winrar on windows.

many thanks

BUT, why must there be a zillion different files to DL,
just to get one program? ;(
To download gIFT one goes here:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=34618
Could someone please help me as to what file to DL?
I just want to DL/Install the thing!
Don't want to recompile (yet!)

Please let me know if there is something better than gIFT. . .
I'm used to KaZaaLite(Death to SpyWare)
Thanks,
John.
P3-800/512/Slackware 9.1