Chapter 16. Adding Software to Linux

In This Chapter

  • Recognizing tarballs, RPMs, and compressed files

  • Creating tarballs and archives

  • Compressing files

  • Opening tarballs, archives, and compressed files

  • Installing and removing RPMs

I will make you shorter by the head.

—Queen Elizabeth I

When you start using a new operating system, one of the most frustrating things is trying to figure out all the goofy file extensions. The Windows world has .exe and .zip. The Macintosh world has .bin and .hqx. What about the Linux world? It certainly has its fair share of bizarre extensions, but, really, they make a great deal of sense after you know the programs that make them. In this chapter, you find out all about .tar, .gz, .tar.gz, .tgz, .bz2, and .rpm. Anyone up for a game of Scrabble with alphabet soup?

After you have the letter jumble all figured out, you’ll be happy to find that Linux offers a number of cool tools for working with these crazy files, updating your system, adding new software, and more.

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