From LQWiki

This article explains how you can install software to your Linux system.

How you should start

To avoid trouble, best practice recommends installing software using the distribution's package management system. So, first step for you is to find out your distribution. Then try to install the software by means of your distribution. If that is not possible, you will have to download the software from the internet and build it.

For example, if you want to install firefox, this is how you install it:

SuSE:

   yast2 -i firefox

Fedora:

  yum install firefox

Debian, KUbuntu, Ubuntu:

  apt-get install firefox

Gentoo:

  emerge firefox
  paludis -i firefox

Installing manually

If your distribution does not provide the package you want to install, there might be other ways to install it. You should be aware of those:

• RPM - the RedHat Package Manager format, described at www.rpm.org. This format is used by Red Hat, SuSE, and Mandrake. You can search for recent RPMs for your system using rpmfind.

• DEB - the Debian package format. This is used by Debian and Debian-based distributions, such as Knoppix.

• klik - a mechanism aiming at installing with one click an application for all distributions including all dependencies.

• CPAN - an installation mechanism independent from the distribution, but dependent on the programming language; only available for Perl.

Compilation from source

Main article: Compilation from source.

If the above options are not available, you will have to compile your software manually.

Typically, you will

• download a tarball from the internet
• unpack it
• invoke ./configure
• invoke make
• invoke make install