Some projects only give you .tar.gz, what am I supposed to do with them? Is this what people call building from source? Am I supposed to move it to /opt and extract it in Debian based distros? Does this also work on Arch based ones?
That’s a gzipped tarball (a compressed archive, like a zip), that’s all. It doesn’t determine anything about what’s contained inside of it.
On modern distributions a “
tar xvf <filename.tar.gz>” should unpack it.Check to see if one of the extracted files is a README or INSTALL file of some sort. If there’s just a binary there to run, then that might be all that was included.
This is a compressed archive of files. Might be source code, might not. Depends on project. If you uncompress and extract it, there is usually a README or INSTALL file with further guidance.
Yes, this is building from source. You extract it and build it with whatever instructions come with it; there should be documentation from the git page or possibly in the tar.
You choose where to put it, but most distros have general spots they put it. You can also use the AUR if you use Arch by using pikaur or yay
It is not necessarily building from source. It’s a compressed tarball, that’s all.
Well, I meant when you download it from a project’s repo, which is pretty much always the code.
Sure, if that’s where it’s from, that makes sense that’s what it would be.
If they don’t provide build instructions, you may be on your own.
What if it doesnt have any instructions?
What do you mean about using the AUR?
You can usually find the instructions by extracting the archive and looking for anything with a
.mdextension or with a filename writtent in all CAPS (ex:README,README.md,INSTALLING).Hmm, then it sort of depends on the project. And I mean the AUR might already have it compiled for you or in an easier form for Arch users. But if you are using Debian and your your question was “will this compile the same way on Arch and Debian” then the answer is simply yes!
What project are you trying to compile?
I am trying to install Foxit Reader and WineGUI for a friend on Manjaro, I found the latter on the AUR I think, so I should run
yay install wine-gui-git?You can do that, but like the other users said, you should be wary of obscure packages because the AUR can be used to spread malware. You can check what the script does to make sure.
And I’d be surprised if you need WineGUI for that, but maybe it’s specifically necessary for how they want to use it. You could also just install WINE and use it to run the program; it will open the program’s GUI.
It can either be precompiled executables or the source code. What you do depends on which one it is.
It’s a compressed archive just like .zip, .rar or .7z on Windows. Compressed archives can contain executables (like on Windows, you just run them) or code (like on Windows, you need to compile them) or other data.
Am I supposed to move it to /opt and extract it in Debian based distros?
If that’s where you like to put it, sure.
Does this also work on Arch based ones?
If they’re binary compatible and you installed all required dependencies in the correct version, probably yes.
tar -xz <filename>
It’s the source (code) of a package. To install it, you still need to create/download a distribution specific specs file (it’s called a PKGBUILD on Arch Linux for example).
This distribution specific specs file for an application (the PKGBUILD on Arch) is a text file describing where to find and download the source from (where on the internet this tar.gz is located). It also describes what the program’s dependencies (other programs it requires to run) are, (such as git to be able to download the sources, or gnutar to unpack them).
The package manager (pacman for Arch, apt for Debian) each can read and understand only a specs file written exclusively for that one package manager (distribution), read this specs file and installs the software.
