You have downloaded or otherwise acquired a software package. Most likely
it is archived (tarred) and compressed (gzipped),
in .tar.gz or .tgz form (familiarly known as a
"tarball"). First copy it to a working directory. Then untar
and gunzip it. The appropriate command for this is tar
xzvf filename, where filename is the name of the
software file, of course. The de-archiving process will usually install
the appropriate files in subdirectories it will create. Note that if
the package name has a .Z suffix, then the above procedure will
serve just as well, though running uncompress, followed by a
tar xvf also works. You may preview this process by a tar
tzvf filename, which lists the files in the archive without actually
unpacking them.
The above method of unpacking "tarballs" is equivalent to either of the following:
stdin.)
Source files in the new bzip2 (.bz2) format
can be unarchived by a bzip2 -cd filename | tar xvf -,
or, more simply by a tar xyvf filename, assuming that
tar has been appropriately patched (refer to the
Bzip2 HOWTO for details). Debian Linux uses a different patch for
tar, one written by Hiroshi Takekawa, so that the -I,
--bzip2, --bunzip2 options work with that particular tar
version.
[Many thanks to R. Brock Lynn and Fabrizio Stefani for corrections and updates on the above information.]
Sometimes the archived file must be untarred and installed from the
user's home directory, or perhaps in a certain other directory, such
as /, /usr/src, or /opt, as specified in
the package's config info. Should you get an error message attempting
to untar it, this may be the reason. Read the package docs, especially
the README and/or Install files, if present, and edit
the config files and/or Makefiles as necessary, consistent
with the installation instructions. Note that you would not
ordinarily alter the Imake file, since this could have unforseen
consequences. Most software packages permit automating this process by
running make install to emplace the binaries in the appropriate
system areas.
shar files, or shell archives,
especially in the source code newsgroups on the Internet. These remain
in use because they are readable to humans, and this permits newsgroup
moderators to sort through them and reject unsuitable ones. They may
be unpacked by the unshar filename.shar command. Otherwise the
procedure for dealing with them is the same as for "tarballs".
Occasionally, you may need to update or incorporate bug fixes into the
unarchived source files using a patch or diff file
that lists the changes. The doc files and/or README file will
inform you should this be the case. The normal syntax for invoking Larry
Wall's powerful patch utility is patch < patchfile.
You may now proceed to the build stage of the process.