Is there a package manager for .tar files

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PerryThePlatypus

Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by PerryThePlatypus »

Hiya

It's cool that you can right click .deb files and use the deb installer to install those applications but is there one for .tar.bz2 files etc that is equally as convenient and quick?

Thanks
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
beefstu

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by beefstu »

A program that's a .tar is usually a compressed source code which requires compiling and cannot be simply installed. This is probably the biggest misconception of windows users (including myself when I first converted).

it's rare that the only place you can find a program for Linux that requires compilling. If it's not in the packag manager than check out removed online or see if they have a ppa on Launchpad which is a fairly easy way of gettin very up-to-date Versions of software.
PerryThePlatypus

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by PerryThePlatypus »

Hiya

Thank for the reply mate thats cool about the website its got some good stuff in it. So in the case of a program that i find only has a .tar extension to download whats the best way of installing it?

Thanks
beefstu

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by beefstu »

If you extract the files (right click --> extract here) hopefully there should be a readme or an install file in it which should explain how to do it. The compiling for each program is different.

Sometimes there is an install script in the folder, e.g. install.sh in which case you either need to right click, goto permissions and click "make executable" and double click the program and say "run in terminal" which should install it all for you, or in the terminal:

navigate to the folder where the program is eg Downloads

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cd ~/Downloads
Then

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sh install.sh
If it says need to be root then

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sudo install.sh
but be warned giving an installer root permissions could allow the script to do whatever it pleases so you should only do this if you trust the source.

If it needs compiling, (ie no script) you need to install 'build-essential' first

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sudo apt-get install build-essential
.

Compiling can be difficult, I usually try to avoid it and have sometimes given up when I haven't been able to do things, but if the instructions are good, it can go smoothly. Could I ask what the program is? It might be easier to help if we can have a look at it.
BrianD

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by BrianD »

...well, for the sake of full disclosure (and, hopefully, clarity):

a .tar file is simply an archive file (it's short for tape archive...) in Unix/Linux systems. Think of it as you would a .zip file. It does not, as indicated above, contain only source code -- it can contain anything, just as a .zip file can contain anything.

...for those that *do* contain source code, however, the usual process to compile an application follows (more or less) these three easy steps (of course, they're not so easy if your system isn't well-equipped for development and/or compiling from source code!!):

1) ./configure
2) make
3) sudo make install
beefstu

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by beefstu »

Thanks for that BrianD, some good points that i missed!
PerryThePlatypus

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by PerryThePlatypus »

Nice one guys thanks for that, you know they tried teaching me linux and the concepts in my old college course using Open Suse Server but never payed attention......wish i did now. It was a download for the 3.6 version of firefox from the mozilla site by the way but i was having some issues with firefox anyway so i opted to go with opera. Thanks again for the info it will come in handy in future as i am half converted to linux now (dual booting with windows 7 ultimate) and want to learn more.
pluraldave

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by pluraldave »

You should have said earlier. Firefox is a special case (or at least it was last time I used it). You just extract the archive and then double click the file called firefox - no installation needed.
vincent

Re: Is there a package manager for .tar files

Post by vincent »

Even better, just check out the Firefox PPA on Launchpad, which offers the latest stable release (FF 3.6).

https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+arc ... ox-stable/

Concise summary on how to install Firefox using the PPA (since you're using APT for this, you don't have to worry about dependency hell or manual updates):

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-stable
sudo apt-get update
Then open mintUpdate and you should see the relevant firefox upgrades. Install them, and voilà, it should work (although if you are having troubles, move your old Firefox config files at ~/.mozilla to another directory and let Firefox create a new one, and then import your settings back inside...alternatively, try playing around with safe mode to see if it works...open a terminal and type

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firefox -safe-mode
)
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