Installing a program from zip file in Linux(Using tarball)

One can install programs in linux either using apt-get or using zip files(using tarball).This post describes how to install a program in linux from zip files

Normally zip files in ubuntu may consist of any of the following extensions
file tar.gz
file.tgz
file.tar.bz2
file.tbz2
Normally these tarball contain sources of software.Inorder to install software from a tarball follow these steps

1. Uncompress tarball

  It can be done using the commands

•  For tar.gz and tgz extension -run tar zxf zip_filename.tar.gz/zip_filename.tgz

• For tar.bz2/tbz2 extension -run tar jxf zip_filename.tar.bz2/zip_filename.tbz2

2. Change to extracted directory

     Now move to extracted directory for this one can use cd command

• cd zip_filename

3.Build  software

• ./configure - used to configure the system
• make -used to compile source files to executable binaries

4.Install software

• make install -this will install the software from binaries .