how to install Programs from Source Code

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Installing Programs from Source Code


You want to install a program from source code, but you're having trouble navigating the thickets of tarballs, makefiles, and bunzips.


Unpack the tarball (compressed archive), then configure, make, and install the program.


Start in the directory where you store your tarballs and source trees. This example uses JOE (Joe's Own Editor):




# cd /usr/src/downloads


# tar zxvf joe-2.9.8.tar.gz


# cd joe-2.9.8


# ls


# less README


# less INFO


# ./configure —help


# ./configure

# make

# make install | tee joe-makeinstall


The last command stores the installation output in the text file joe-makeinstall.

Some programs are archived with the bunzip2 utility, rather than the more traditional gzip. This is how to unpack a .bz2 archive:

# tar jxvf joe-2.9.8.tar.bz2


To uninstall a source-built program, use:

# make uninstall


Uninstalling works only if the program author included a make uninstall option.

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