Lesson 3: Adding Applications to Your System: Part II

Lesson 3
Adding Applications to Your System: Part II
Using apt-get
Compiling Source

There are a couple of additonal methods that one can use to update their system. The first method comes from the Debian distribution and is very easy to instlall and use. The second method involves the downloading of the source code of an application contained the form of a compressed tarball. your textbook discusses this briefly on pages 181 - 182.

Obtaining and using apt-get

We are going to obtain an application originally from the Debian distribution. This is called apt-get. It permits a system administrator to update their system with ease.

First, we must obtain this utility at apt.freshrpms.net.
At the freshrpms site click on the link representing the distribution you are running. For us that will be Red Hat 9.
Download the "Binary x86 rpm package" to your system.
Install the rpm package.
Now that you've installed this utility you need conduct an update using "apt-get update".
Upon completing the update process, you are ready to install applications on your system using the apt-get command.
We'll use the format, "apt-get install application_name".

Installing compressed tar files

These file types are similar to the .zip files encountered on Windows platforms. Despite their similarity the user must work with them differently. With a zip file you simply double click on it and follow a set of straightforward instructions. Oh how I wish the compressed tar files were that easy. To begin you place you compressed tar file in a directory for decompressing and opening the tar file. Make certain you have the compressed tarball in a directory where you want to place the directory structure that will be attached to your filesystem. In the directory containing the compressed tar file execute the tar command.

tar zxvf packagename*.tar.gz

The options are (z) for decompressing the file. This removes the gz extension. The (x) option places the contents of the tar file in a subdirectory where the command is being executed. The (v) and (f) options permit us to see what is happening while the tar file is being opened.

The compressed tar files commonly are used for the source code of a package. If this is the case, you have a bit more work ahead of you. Refer to Chapter 5: Installing software in gzip/tar format on pages 181-182 for some helpful steps in these situations.

Some application developments will have their work in progress source code in compressed file forms other than *.tar.gz. Some common forms you could encounter are *.tar.bz2, *.tar.bz, *.tar.tbz2, and *.tar.tbz. These types of endings mean the tarball was compressed using a command called 'bzip2'. With the help of the man pages one can determine how to uncompress these files using the command 'bunzip2'. Another way to research these commands it to use the links at www.linuxindayton.com under III. Linux Command References.