You have downloaded or otherwise acquired a software package. Most likely
it is archived (tarred) and compressed (gzipped),
in .tar.gz or .tgz form (familiarly known as a 'tar
ball'). First copy it to a working directory. Then untar
and gunzip it. The appropriate command for this is tar
xzvf filename, where filename is the name of the
software file, of course. The de-archiving process will usually install
the appropriate files in subdirectories it will create. Note that if
the package name has a .Z suffix, then the above procedure will
serve just as well, though running uncompress, followed by a
tar xvf also works.
This method of unpacking 'tar balls' is equivalent to either of the following:
Source files in the new bzip2 (.bz2) format
can be unarchived by a bzip2 -cd filename | tar xvf -,
or, more simply by a tar xyvf filename, assuming that
gzip has been appropriately patched (refer to the
Bzip2 HOWTO for details).
[Many thanks to R. Brock Lynn for corrections and updates on the above information.]
Sometimes the archived file must be untarred and installed from
the user's home directory, or perhaps in a certain other directory, as
specified in the package's config info. Should you get an error message
attempting to untar it, this may be the reason. Read the
package docs, especially the README and/or Install
files, if present, and edit the config files and/or Makefiles
as necessary, consistent with the installation instructions. Note that
you would not ordinarily alter the Imake file, since
this could have unforseen consequences. Some software packages permit
automating this process by running make install to emplace the
binaries in the appropriate system areas.
Occasionally, you may need to update or incorporate bug fixes into the
unarchived source files using a patch or diff file
that lists the changes. The doc files and/or README file will
inform you should this be the case. The normal syntax for invoking Larry
Wall's powerful patch utility is patch < patchfile.
You may now proceed to the build stage of the process.