install from source

[antonio_helder2002]

well this is really a stupid thing that i pun on this forum. the matter is that i am a user of ubuntu for the last 2years and for me its a shame that i cannot install any software from source and have to rely on software centre and upgrades for and software or have to find a Deb file on the internet and then install where as if i knew to install from source then only the source would have been enough for making a software work. can any one please guide me with installation from source.
NB-> i have tried almost all the instructions given in various sites that came after searching in google

[oz]

We have a HowTo you can check out that covers installing from source:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/lin...are-linux.html

[Rubberman]

Ozar is a master of this stuff. Listen to him.

What you need to do to install from source depends upon the application. First, you need the compiler tools (gcc, make, cmake, autoconf, etc). Second, you need to run the application's "configure" command, assuming it has one (not all do). That is used to build a Makefile that is compatible with your system. Usually, when you are inside the directory where the source code is, you run the command "./configure". Third, assuming you were successful in running the configure script, you will need to build the application using the "make" command. If that is successful, you will need to install it, using the "sudo make install" command, which will copy the executable and any libraries that accompany it to /usr/local/... (/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, etc). Finally, assuming you installed everything into /usr/local, you will need to 1) make sure that /usr/local/bin is in your PATH environment, and 2) /usr/local/lib is in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH if the application installed libraries as well as the executable.

Confused yet? No matter. We'll help you get this sorted out.