Install The Application via The Source Code

In the previous post described how to install applications on ubuntu via Terminal & Ubuntu Software Center from ubuntu repository also the installation of application from the Debian Package Installer. This time will explain how to install the application through the source code. Usually the source code files are compressed in a tar.gz or tar.bz2 format & in that file, you will found a file named README or INSTALL. We recommended that you open & read the README or INSTALL file first before installing the source code because in the file will be explained how to install it also some additional configuration that may be required.

In general, the steps of installation on linux/ubuntu from source code is as follows :

1. Extract the file tar.gz or tar.bz2

tar -xzvf filename.tar.gz

or

tar -xjvf filename.tar.bz2

This creates a directory filename
2. Change into the directory extracted.

cd filename

3. Configuring the source code. This step is to ascertain whether the source code ready to be compiled into a program.

./configure

4. Compiling source code.

make

5. Installing the program compilation. When doing this you must be root. If you've done as a normal user, you can become root by adding the sudo command. It'll ask you the root password and then you're ready for the final step.

sudo make install

Installation steps should not as mentioned above. In some circumstances, you must customize the command, especially when configuring.