./configure command

[Boris Glawe]

Joao Paulo Pires wrote:

> Hi Cameron,
> Thanks for your answer.
> I'm a end user for FC4. The real problem I have is each time I want 
> try some program from CDs ou DVDs from magazines, they advise to 
> install with './configure' and 'make install'. Is there any other 
> possibility?
> TIA, Joao.
> _


Never do this, though it is recommended. With the final comman "make 
install" you might probably overwrite existing files which are neede by 
other applications.

With fedora you have the command yum. This command connects to the 
internet and automatically fetches rpm packages from mirror servers.

Run for example the command

yum install elinks

yum will download and install the package for the programm elinks. If 
elinks depends on other packages, yum downloads and installs them, too.

All packages that can e installed with yum are part of a so called 
repository. A repository is simply a collection of a rpm packages. Go 
for to your /etc/yum.repos.d directory. Each .repo file in that 
directory configures one repository. With FC4 you have at least 
something called "core", "extras" and "updates". core ist the reository, 
that has the packages which are needed to run you system and alle 
packages that are usually installed with your system (gnome, firefox, 
evolution, samba, etc) in extras you have millions of other packages. 
Usually you will be satisfied with this repository. If you are going to 
use software with non free licenses (mp3-codecs, wma-codecs, man 
videoplayers, etc), you should use for example the freshrpms repository. 
Go to freshrpms.net for more information. Install freshrpms' repository with

rpm -i 
http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/fedora/linux/5/freshrpms-release/freshrpms-release-1.1-1.fc.noarch.rpm

(I found the link on freshrpms' homepage).

After the installation you have new repositories in /etc/yum.repos.d. 
Alternatively you could have reated these files manually. The 
installation via the rpm command is easier though.

 From now on you can at any time run commands like

yum install xine*

which will install all packages for the xine videoplayer.

greets Boris