Because of this, the source code of open-source software is generally packaged as tar.gz files. Using system-provided package managers is an easier way for installation. But, not all software is available across all Linux systems. Also, the type of licensing may prevent some applications from being available altogether. This is where the tar.gz build system comes in.
How to Install Tar.gz
How to Extract Tar.gz Files
You can decompress a tarball in one of two ways. Most Ubuntu-based distros come with the Archive Manager application. Use either one of these approaches as you see fit.
Extract Tar.gz Files Using Archive Manager (Ubuntu/kali Linux/ Mint/ Debian)
Extract Tar.gz Using the Command Line (All Linux Flavours + Macos Any Version)
How to Extract Tarfile in Windows
If you are using Windows 10 or newer, you can use tar utility from Powershell. If using an older version, you need to install extraction software to get files from tar.gz. This article lists some of the popular software used in Windows PC.
How to Install Tar.gz File
For our purposes, we will examine the steps by installing a free application. The name of this application is KeePassX. Check their website for more information. After following the above steps, we have the files we need under /home/foo/Downloads/keepassx-2.0.3. The concept of this process is easy to follow. First, we build our configuration, and then we compile it for our Operating System. This process applies to any distro or any flavor of Linux with all tarball applications. Of course, every application has different config files. But they all follow the above general pattern for the installation process.
What is Dependency Error When Trying to Run cmake or configure?
This means you don’t have the required dependencies installed in your system. If you look at the INSTALL file, you will be able to see the list of dependencies. For Ubuntu-based systems, use apt-get install to install dependencies as shown below.
What Error Do We Get When Using cmake?
Cmake stores errors in CMakeError.log. This can happen when one or more dependencies are installed but don’t have the required versions. Refer to this article to install the correct versions of packages.
Error When Using ./configure?
Autoconf application is missing. Newer Ubuntu versions don’t ship autoconf utility by default. This can be solved by installing it as sudo apt-get install autoconf. If you want to read more about the source installation process, follow this website.
