🚀 go-pugleaf

"stephencostigan@gmail.com" <stephencostigan@gmail.com> writes:

>I seem to be having some fundamental trouble using a few utilities.
>These problems are preventing me from installing programs and learning
>on the system.  The easiest way to install programs for me has been to
>use the ports system.

Have you successfully used the ports system yet? If you do, you don't
need to worry about tar files and the like. If you haven't already found
the documentation for ports, you could have a look at:

	http://www.freebsd.org/ports/

>I am trying to understand what types of files I
>should be download Tar, Bin, etc....  Once these files are downloaded
>and decompressed how in the world am I supposed to install them?  Many
>of the applications seem like they need me to actually go into the
>config files before doing a make / make install.

If you choose to install software manually (as opposed to using
ports, or some other similar system) then the traditional way of
installing software on unix systems looks something like:

	get the tar file of the source code.
	tar xzf source.tar.gz
	cd source
	./configure
	make
	make install

Of course, it is usually a good idea to read the instructions that
come with the source code before compiling (usually in a README or
INSTALL file), so that you can do any special configuration that
may be needed.

	David.