Dum Question

[Ron Smith]

Hi Gerald,

You sound a bit nervous about posting to this group, but I think you 
will find that most of the dogs here don't bite. ;-)

The *.tar.gz is a very standard way to distribute linux software, so it 
is highly likely that you have one. I will outline a typical procedure 
for installing this type of software.

tar is a utility originally used to create Tape ARchives. It bundles up 
a bunch of directories into a single file so that it is easier to deal 
with. For more information about it and how to use it try the command:

	man tar

The .gz part of the file name means that it has been compressed with 
the GNU zip utility.

If you are on an older system with an older tar utility you will have 
to unzip it before you can untar it:

	gunzip filename.tar.gz

which will leave you with a file called  filename.tar

Then you will untar that file with:

	tar -xvf filename.tar

The newer versions of tar usually have the zip/unzip functionality 
built in, you just add the "z" switch to the command:

	tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz

And that will unzip and untar it at the same time. This will leave you 
with a directory, most likely with the name of the filename of the 
tar.gz file. Inside that directory will probably be a README and an 
INSTALL file. You should read those. The INSTALL file will probably 
instruct you to use the following commands:

	./config
	make
	make install

If all goes well, then your new software is installed and ready to use.

-Ron

On Sunday, August 24, 2003, at 07:15 PM, Gerald wrote:

> Running Mac OS when I download a program from Version Tracker or 
> Tucows it untuffs automatically with stuffit. I downloaded a program 
> for YDL and now I don't really know what to do with it. It is a tar.gz 
> file or something similar (I know, I know I'm on a different computer 
> with a bad memory) How do I unzip or unstuff a file in Linux? Waiting 
> for your reply and remember this is a newbie list.
>
> TIA,
>
> Gerald
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