LINUX
COMMANDS
Contents | Previous
| Next
Installing software
Generally, there are two ways to install software. One
is to download a source tarball (.tar.gz, .tgz,
.tar.bz2), compile, and install it; the other is
to install an RPM (or the less common equivalent in Debian
GNU/Linux, a Debian package).
One of the biggest problems when installing software is
dependency problems. Either an RPM refuses to install because
it first requires something else be installed, which you
are informed off, or often in the case of compiling from
a source tarball, a cryptic error message is displayed.
Because RPMs install with a single command, and do dependency
checking, displaying a clear indicator of what the problem
is, for the beginner they are recommended. RPMs are supported
by Red Hat Linux, Mandrake, SuSE, and many more.
Often though, either a website doesn't offer the software
as an RPM, or RPMs have yet to be created for the latest
version of the software.
Installing software from source tarballs
Usually this involves downloading the software, extracting
it, and cd'ing in to the newly extracted directory, for
example:
tar xvfz glimmer-1.2.1.tar.gz (or:
tar xvfj glimmer-1.2.1.tar.bz2)
cd glimmer-1.2.1
...then entering the very common, three commands:
./configure
To run the configure script, to create the Makefile
file.
make
To compile the source code (to create the binaries),
using the Makefile file.
make install
To install the binaries (and some other files) in the
directories specified in the Makefile. This command requires
you be the root user.
To uninstall the program later on (a feature that isn't
always provided for), in the extracted directory, enter:
make uninstall
Prior to entering ./configure you should read
the included documentation. Usually text files with filenames
indicated in uppercase. Notably README, and INSTALL.
On rare occasions sites can be irritating by archiving
the contents of a directory, rather than the directory itself.
Extraction then results in all files and subdirectories
being extracted to the current directory, and getting horribly
mixed up with everything else. To ensure the tarball is
extracted to its own directory, enter:
tar tfz glimmer-1.2.1.tar.gz
(or: tar tfj glimmer-1.2.1.tar.bz2)
If the files listed do not all begin with something like
glimmer-1.2.1/ then instead of a normal extraction,
enter:
mkdir glimmer-1.2.1
tar xvfz glimmer-1.2.1.tar.gz -C glimmer-1.2.1
RPMs and Debian packages
The Red Hat Package Manager, used by Red Hat Linux, Linux-Mandrake,
SuSE Linux, and many other Linux distributions, is a utility
that allows you to install, query, build, and uninstall
RPM files (*.rpm). An RPM is usually named as follows:
packagename-version-release.architecture.rpm
For example:
xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm
...where the package name is xchat, the version
is 1.8.5, the release is 0, and the architecture
is i386.
Note:
To determine your architecture, enter arch. An
Athlon for example is i686 architecture, making it fine
to install *.i686.rpm, *.i585.rpm, and
*.i386.rpm RPMs.
For convenience the popular Debian GNU/Linux distribution,
which uses *.deb files instead of the more prevalent
*.rpm format, is also shown alongside the rpm
commands.
rpm -Uvh xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm
Upgrades xchat or installs the package if no previous
version was found. U for upgrade, v for
verbose (so you know what's going on), and h for
hash (to show a progress bar).
Debian equivalent: dpkg -i xchat_1.8.5-0_i386.deb
rpm -e xchat
Uninstall (erase) the package xchat. When uninstalling,
you only give the package name part, e.g. xchat,
not the full package name, e.g. xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm.
Debian equivalent: dpkg --purge xchat
(or dpkg -r xchat to remove but keep configuration
files, in case you decide to reinstall later on)
rpm -q xchat
Query RPM database, to display version of X-Chat installed.
Useful for discovering if you have something installed.
Debian equivalent: dpkg -l xchat
(l for list)
Tip:
To display all (-a) RPMs installed, in alphabetic
order, and in the less program, enter:
rpm -qa | sort | less
Debian equivalent: dpkg -l '*' | sort | less
rpm -qi xchat
Query RPM database and display information about an installed
RPM. Notably a description of the software.
Debian equivalent: dpkg -s xchat
(s for status)
rpm -qip xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm
Displays information about the RPM, xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm,
located in the current directory. Notably a description
of the software.
Debian equivalent: dpkg -I xchat_1.8.5-0_i386.deb
rpm -ql xchat
Query RPM database and display (list) the files installed
by this RPM.
Debian equivalent: dpkg -L xchat
rpm -qlp xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm
Displays files that would be installed by the RPM, xchat-1.8.5-0.i386.rpm,
located in the current directory.
Debian equivalent: dpkg -c xchat_1.8.5-0_i386.deb
# ldconfig
If a source tarball, RPM or Debian package include the
word "lib" in the filename, then it's a library file, used
by other programs to perform common tasks.
After installing a library file, you need to make its presence
known to ld. You do this by entering, as root:
ldconfig
If you receive a "command not found" message (because you
swapped to root with just an su instead
of su -), enter the commands full path:
/sbin/ldconfig
This scans the directories indicated in the /etc/ld.so.conf
text file, to update the known library files.
Contents | Previous
| Next
