Tutorial Linux: How to Configure and Extract Source Codes – As you have become more familiar with how UNIX/LINUX works, you may begin to shift your attention on how to configure, download and extract source codes – in that case, you are in luck as here we are going to give you a Tutorial Linux and focusing on just three of the aforementioned tasks. Read on to learn configuration and how to deal with source codes.
What is Configure and how to easily compile a package
A configure shell-script is an attempt that is used to guess the correct values of a large number of variables (which are system dependent by nature) during a compilation process. It simply uses values in order to create Makefile, the easiest and most simple way to compile your package can be seen as follows:
· Use cd command to a directory which contains a source code for your package and then type in ./configure to simply configure the aforementioned package for the system.
· Type make to instantly compile said package or alternatively, type in make check to properly run the package’s self tests.
· Type in make install to automatically install programs and any documentation or data files or alternatively, type in make clean to automatically remove object files and program binaries from directory.
How to download and extract source codes
Downloading a software is a simple process, all you have to do in the beginning is create a new download directory by entering % mkdir download. As to how to extract the source code, simply go into your newly-created download directory and type in the following:
% cd download
% ls -l
You’ll be presented with a file which ends in tar.gz and should be unzipped by entering % gunzip units-1.74.tar.gz and % tar -xvf units-1.74.tar to extract the tar file contents, list content in your download directory, go to your subdirectory called units-1.74 and type in % cd units-1.74.
