What's the difference between source and biniary downloads?

[Force Flow]

I've been seeing linux sites having apps with these two options. Which one is self-installing? the binary? Or neither?

[LocoCoyote]

OK, this is comin' from good old Linux newbie me, but as I understand this mess (and it IS a mess. For installing apps give me Windows everytime!) but the source (ie .tar.gz) need to be unzipped (gzip) and untarred (tar) then compiled. The Binarys are supposed to be the complete package rolled up into a (mostly) self installing package. Truth to tell though I have had better luck (ie fewer missing dependency problems) with the .tar.gz downloads. Just a side note, but I am playing with ximian's Red Carpet updater. It has helped me install some stuff that I had no luck with in either the .tar.gz or either rpm format.
This all comes from my ongoing "Give Linux a chance" project!

Hope that helps

[Force Flow]

Ah-ha! So that's why there's two extentsions!

Are there any basic instructions on how to install binaries?

[kilgoretrout]

If your using an rpm based distro like Mandrake or Redhat, the binaries all come precompiled for the specific distro and will have a .rpm extension. To install you download the rpm, click on the file, enter your root password and if all goes well, the program will be automatically installed.
That's a pretty big "if" however. Not infrequently, the installation program will spit out an error message telling you that there are unmet dependencies and you get a list of other rpms you need to install before you can install the one you want. To get around this problem known as dependency hell, Mandrake uses a system known as urpmi. Once you set up sources which are just internet repositories for Mandrake rpms, urpmi will automatically download the needed dependencies, install them and then install the package you want. It works great, especially if you have broadband.
Debian based distros have a similar system for getting around dependency hell called apt-get. Redhat doesn't have urpmi but it can be setup to work with apt-get and there are well known source repositories for redhat rpms.
You can frequently install rehat compiled rpms on Mandrake and vice versa and many rpm packages are listed as for rehat 7.2 or some other redhat version but will install and run fine on Mandrake. If your distro doesn't like the redhat rpm, it will spit out an error message when you try to install it about incompatabilities with previously installed packages and abort the install so there's generally no downside to trying.

[mairving]

I generally always use source since you have more control over where things install and any options. For instance, after downloading a source file, you would do something like from the shell (command line):
tar -xvzf filename.tar.gz
cd new directory created when deflated
./configure --help (lists options for installation)
./configure --with-options
make
make install

[Force Flow]

I'm using Mandrake 9.1 (see sig )

Thanks for the explainations, guys!

[kilgoretrout]

Plf is a great Mandrake source repository. Check out this link to see how to set up sources:

http://plf.zarb.org/~nanardon/

Another good resource for Mandrake is the unofficial Mandrake users board which you can find here:

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/

It's actually much better than the official Mandrake Club and its free.

[jglen490]

Ya'll are telling the truth, but not necessarily the whole truth. Gzipped tarballs are a form of file distribution, but not every .tar.gz is a source file, it may simply be an installer wrapped in gzipped tarball "skin". Another form of binary distribution is files that end in .bin. This, too, is an installtion package, but typically these are strictly binary package containers.

It's very important that you read the instructions at the place where you get your file. Find out whether you are getting a source file, or a binary installation package.

A tarball .tar is simply an archive (usually multi-file), originally "Tape ARchive", thus "tar". A tar file can then be further gzipped (a compressed file usually compatible with WinZip or PKZip) and get a .gz filename extention.

[Force Flow]

Thanks guys!

[OOPS!]

Hi,

Just to add to the confusion, there are also .src.rpms also. These rpms are also source.

People looking for the most preformance from their boxen prefer source. Gentoo is a distro that everything is done by compiling from source. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty simple to do. When you compile your own, you get a binary that is built for your box. Plus, you can add "switches" to add or decrease optimizations. That is why it sometimes installs better than the binaries do. Plis, it just feels soooo good to compile.

OOPS!

[Force Flow]

OOPS!, you're right about adding to the confusion, Lol