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Building from Source

The term "build from source" means downloading the source code and compiling it yourself.

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Options for extracting tarballs: 

tar -xzvf name.tar.gz
tar -xjvf name.tar.bz2

  • xvf for both
  • z for .gz
  • j for .bz2

Tarballs

Typically, open-source programs are shipped in a .tar.gz format.

A .tar.gz file or .tar.bz2 file is a compressed tarball.

  • E.g., program.tar.gz is a tarball that was compressed with gzip.
  • The uncompressed extension of a tarball would be .tar.

The tarball contains the source code for an application.

Creating your Own Tarball

Create a tarball using the tar command with the -czf options.

tar -czf my-project.tar.gz ./my-project/

  • -czf
    • -c: Creates a new archive.
    • -z: Specify that you want to use gzip to compress it.
    • -f: Specify the output file
  • ./my-project/: The directory you want to create an archive from.

Download the Source Code

You found a program you want.

Find the source code for it (possibly under github's releases) and find the tarball.

Extracting an Archive

  • For .tar.gz files type: 

    tar -xzvf <filename>.tar.gz

  • For .tar.bz2 files type: 

    tar -xjvf <filename>.tar.bz2