How do I install a .tar or .tar.gz file?

[Herbie]

I have downloaded a tar.gz screensaver. I would like to know how to install this screensaver. Please help!

[pparks1]

First of all, you cannot install a tar.gz file.

A tar.gz file is what is called a compressed tarball. The .gz part tells you that the file is compressed with gnuzip. You can unzip with the gunzip app. gunzip file.tar.gz

The .tar tells you that the file is a tarball. In other words, a bunch of files that are put together in 1 tape archive (tar) file You need to run the tar command to untar that file. tar -xvf file.tar

From there, you should fine a readme with instructions on how to compiile and install the software . This step is always differrent, so I cannot tell you the next few steps, but there shoud be an INSTALL or a README which will tell you what to do.

[tashirosgt]

Also you must "gunzip' a *.tar.gz or *.tgz file. So do
Suppose your file is newScreenSaver.tar.gz.
Then do
gunzip newScreenSaver.tar.gz
tar xf newScreenSaver.tar

Or use the 'z' option on tar to do it all at once.
tar xzf newScreenSaver.tar.gz

If you want to see the file names scroll by as they are created add the 'v' option too.

[Herbie]

Okay, so here's a problem...I found the Install and readme files and followed them...however, it says the following.

[root]$ ./configure
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnuoldld
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for -p flag to install... yes
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for kde-config... /usr/bin/kde-config
checking where to install... /usr (as returned by kde-config)
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.

Any ideas where I can get a C compiler that will suit this criteria?

[tashirosgt]

You need to install the C compiler and probably the libraries commonly used by C programs. I suggest you begin by installing the packages

gcc
glibc-common
glibc-kernheaders
glibc-headers
glibc
glibc-devel

Do
rpm -qa | grep gcc
and
rpm -qa | grep glibc
to see what you already have.

When connected to the internet a command like
yum install gcc
Will get the package for you and ask if you want to install it. If you don't want to bother answering the questions, do
yum -y install gcc

[alphonsebrown]

Also checkinstall is useful to create rpms out of tgz compile once