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Full Discussion: compiling
Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers compiling Post 4898 by Neo on Friday 3rd of August 2001 12:15:53 AM
Old 08-03-2001
First you untar the file. I suggest you first examine the tar file by doing something like a: tar tvf filename.tar or tar tvzf filename.tar.gz or tar tvzf filename.tgz whatever works for you.

This allows you to view how the file will be untarred, just to be safe. Normally, the distribution will untar into it's own directory, but sometimes (not often) it just dumps 'not so nicely'.

After you find out that it untars nicely (or you create a directory to untar) you then do a tar xvf filename.tar or tar xvzf filename.tar.gz or tar xvzf filename.tgz whatever works for you Smilie

Then, you cd into the directory and then follow Optimus's idea to read the README or INSTALL file. This is a text file and you should read carefully, perhaps even print, go to the couch, and relax and read.

Normally, good tarfiles will have a command you run in the root directory that says ./configure or something like that. This script will do lots of genius system checking and automatically create the Makefile . Most of the times, that is all you have to do. make then make install .

However, you might like to install things in different places than the default, need to link special libs, add special compile time features, etc. This is all nicely documented in any good README or INSTALL file.

There are other ways..... but the description above is bare bones, no frills, untar, configure, make and make install.

Enjoy! This is a well established UNIX tradition that is fun and easy after you get the hang of it !!! As Optimus says, the key is to read the README first file.

BTW: The programmers have spent a lot of time to create the ./configure scripts to generate the Makefile. They work super hard to make this error free in a cross-vendor cross-compiler world, and they give great things away for FREE!! This is really a core UNIX cultural trait. It is both the strength of UNIX and a weakness. The strength is that it is free. The weakness is that free is not normally a commercially viable model, so you don't call and scream at the person who wrote the code and gave it away for free.... you spend some time working out the difficulties because the time you spend on your install debug is a fraction of the time the programmer spent in writing your free code that does all the wonderful things you like.

This cultural model is actually one of the greatest achievements of the Internet age, if you ask me, and a tribute to the unselfishness of the technical community as a whole. As you might agree, this is a rare trait in the modern world.

Respect and Honor the Tradition
 

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tar(n)								 Tar file handling							    tar(n)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

NAME
tar - Tar file creation, extraction & manipulation SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.4 package require tar ?0.4? ::tar::contents tarball ::tar::stat tarball ?file? ::tar::untar tarball args ::tar::get tarball fileName ::tar::create tarball files args ::tar::add tarball files args ::tar::remove tarball files _________________________________________________________________ DESCRIPTION
::tar::contents tarball Returns a list of the files contained in tarball. The order is not sorted and depends on the order files were stored in the archive. ::tar::stat tarball ?file? Returns a nested dict containing information on the named ?file? in tarball, or all files if none is specified. The top level are pairs of filename and info. The info is a dict with the keys "mode uid gid size mtime type linkname uname gname devmajor devminor % ::tar::stat tarball.tar foo.jpg {mode 0644 uid 1000 gid 0 size 7580 mtime 811903867 type file linkname {} uname user gname wheel devmajor 0 devminor 0} ::tar::untar tarball args Extracts tarball. -file and -glob limit the extraction to files which exactly match or pattern match the given argument. No error is thrown if no files match. Returns a list of filenames extracted and the file size. The size will be null for non regular files. Leading path seperators are stripped so paths will always be relative. -dir dirName Directory to extract to. Uses pwd if none is specified -file fileName Only extract the file with this name. The name is matched against the complete path stored in the archive including directo- ries. -glob pattern Only extract files patching this glob style pattern. The pattern is matched against the complete path stored in the archive. -nooverwrite Dont overwrite files that already exist -nomtime Leave the file modification time as the current time instead of setting it to the value in the archive. -noperms In Unix, leave the file permissions as the current umask instead of setting them to the values in the archive. % foreach {file size} [::tar::untar tarball.tar -glob *.jpg] { puts "Extracted $file ($size bytes)" } ::tar::get tarball fileName Returns the contents of fileName from the tarball % set readme [::tar::get tarball.tar doc/README] { % puts $readme } ::tar::create tarball files args Creates a new tar file containing the files. files must be specified as a single argument which is a proper list of filenames. -dereference Normally create will store links as an actual link pointing at a file that may or may not exist in the archive. Specifying this option will cause the actual file point to by the link to be stored instead. % ::tar::create new.tar [glob -nocomplain file*] % ::tar::contents new.tar file1 file2 file3 ::tar::add tarball files args Appends files to the end of the existing tarball. files must be specified as a single argument which is a proper list of filenames. -dereference Normally add will store links as an actual link pointing at a file that may or may not exist in the archive. Specifying this option will cause the actual file point to by the link to be stored instead. ::tar::remove tarball files Removes files from the tarball. No error will result if the file does not exist in the tarball. Directory write permission and free disk space equivalent to at least the size of the tarball will be needed. % ::tar::remove new.tar {file2 file3} % ::tar::contents new.tar file3 BUGS, IDEAS, FEEDBACK This document, and the package it describes, will undoubtedly contain bugs and other problems. Please report such in the category tar of the Tcllib SF Trackers [http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=12883]. Please also report any ideas for enhancements you may have for either package and/or documentation. KEYWORDS
archive, tape archive, tar tar 0.4 tar(n)
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