Install a program in a tar.gz package in Linux

When developers create a software or tool they generally develop it on one Linux distribution (the one they generally prefer working on) and release it for other distributions too. In some cases what you get is only a .tar.gz package and you have to install the required software from this package. In this article we will tell you how to install any software on Linux that comes in a .tar.gz package.

Step 1: Download the .tar.gz package of the Linux software you plan to install from it’s website.

Step 2: Extract the contents of the .tar.gz package to a folder using this command in a terminal:

tar xvzf your-package.tar.gz
Step 3: Navigate to the directory where you just extracted the files. In this directory you will find either or both the files named README and INSTALL. These files contain all the information you require to install the software on your system. For almost all packages you have to run the configure script that is included. To do so, type the following in a terminal:

./configure
Step 4: Now you have to make the installation script. This can again be done using the following command:

make install
Step 5: Finally you have to install the package, using this command:

install
Many packages will have a different procedure for installing them, the information about which will be suitably supplied in the README or INSTALL file as already mentioned in Step 3.