Ubuntu Wiki

Introduction

In this document I have tried to cover some Linux formats, as there is very less material available on internet regarding Linux software formats. Windows users will remember them easy if they comapre it with thier known Windows format.

Objective

This document is made for users new to Linux and want to know about the Linux software formats.This guide will cover some known file format information and also compression and ways of packaging in Linux.

Formats

In Windows,software may have (.ZIP) or (.RAR) or regular (.EXE) format. For Linux you have options like

• Source files
• Binary files
• Tarballs
• Redhat packages (.RPM)
• Debian Packages (.deb)

Source files are nothing but raw code which requires compilation to work. While binary files are like .exe files which are ready to install.

Tarballs

Tarballs are nothing but the gzipped files with extentions like (.tar.gz or TGZ). Most of time a tarball contains source files of binary files.In open source community it is used to distribute source code.If you find any software compressed under ta.gz,uncompressed it by double clicking on it before installing it. You can also use the tar command like this: tar xzf name_of_file for the same purpose.

gzip

The most common method of file compression used in linux is Gzip program. Gzip have two jobs like compressing an individual file or compressing a tar archieve.

You can use these command line options. To compress individual file: gzip filename

To uncompress an individual file:

gunzip filename.gz

To create a gzipped tar file:

tar cvzf achievename.tar filename

To extract files from gzipped tar file :

tar xvzf archievename.tar filenames

RPM's

The red hat package manager or .RPM is format specially designed for easy installation and management of software packages.RPM allows you to install,upgrade and remove software packages. It tracks dependencies and will not install software if it depends on another package which is not installed.

To convert RPM packages to debian package format use command ALIEN. New users: don't use alien method, If there are DEBs available you should use them or you might severely screw up your system.

Deb packages

Debian and its derivative distributions uses packages in file format called DEB. These are installed using a program called "dpkg",or from other software installation programs like synaptic,adept etc. Deb packages are known for better management of installed files.

As ubuntu is based on debian it uses "apt" software technology to keep the system up to date. You will find these commands helpful for deb files:

To install a package :

dpkg -i filename

To list installed package :

apt-cache show packagename

To remove or uninstall package :

dpkg -r packagename

If you are not command line user, you can navigate to synaptic package manager in ubuntu and mark the package for removal or for installation.

Programs, packages, help resources

Software installation programs available for ubuntu/kubuntu are synaptic package manager,adept etc. You can even use Add-Remove applications link from applications menu to add or remove softwares. Besides your repository you can obtain software from various sources. Some of the sources/links are mentioned below.

• http://www.linuxapps.com

• http://www.icewalkers.com

• http://packages.debian.org/

• http://www.apt-get.org/

It is easy to get help for your printer,modem and laptop. Try searching over these sites.

• http://www.linuxprinting.org/

• http://www.linmodems.org/

• http://tuxmobil.org/mylaptops.html

• http://www.linuxquestions.org

If you want windows equivalent software then search this table:

• http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/

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