Lesson 5.4: Installing software by hand
When a program isn't in any repository: verify the download's checksum, unpack a release archive into /opt, link it into /usr/local/bin so it's on your PATH, install a single .deb with dpkg, and know what building from source involves.
17 min
You will learn to
- Verify a download with sha256sum -c
- Install a program into /opt and link it into /usr/local/bin
- Explain PATH and why the new command now works
- Install a downloaded .deb with dpkg -i
- Describe the configure, make, make install steps
Key terms
- Checksum
- A hash of a file published by its author. Recomputing it after download proves the file is identical.
- /opt and /usr/local
- Places for software installed outside the package manager: /opt for self-contained programs in their own folder, /usr/local (bin, lib, share) for software installed in the classic layout.
- PATH
- The list of directories the shell searches, in order, when you type a command name.
- dpkg -i
- Installs a single downloaded .deb file without a repository. It doesn't fetch dependencies; apt install ./file.deb does.
- Building from source
- Turning source code into a program on your own machine, classically ./configure (checks the system and prepares), make (compiles), sudo make install (copies into /usr/local).
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