Purpose of this document

The main goal of this page is to describe a way to install some well known Linux softwares into a local directory like the $HOME directory.

software	version
Adobe Reader	7.0.9
Eclipse	SDK 3.3.0
FileZilla	Nightly build 2007-08-04
Firefox	2.0.0.6
Java	jre1.6.0_02
Objective Caml	3.10.0
Sunbird	0.5
Thunderbird	2.0.0.6
Unison	2.13.16

Local directory structure

The first thing to do is to create a local directory structure in your $HOME directory. This structure will be similar to the /usr/local directory structure.

[~] > mkdir -p usr/local/bin usr/local/etc usr/local/include \
usr/local/java usr/local/lib usr/local/man usr/local/sbin usr/local/share/info \
usr/local/share/man usr/local/src

Update the different environment variables to take into account local installed softwares.

[~] > export PATH=$HOME/usr/local/bin:$HOME/usr/local/sbin:$PATH
[~] > export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
[~] > export MANPATH=$HOME/usr/local/man:$HOME/usr/local/share/man:$MANPATH

Or modify your startup shell file like the $HOME/.bash_profile for the BASH shell.

~/.bash_profile

...
LOCAL_PATH=${HOME}/usr/local/bin:${HOME}/usr/local/sbin
if [ -z "$PATH" ]; then
    PATH=${LOCAL_PATH}
else
    PATH=${LOCAL_PATH}:${PATH}
fi
...
LOCAL_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${HOME}/usr/local/lib
if [ -z "$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" ]; then
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LOCAL_LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
else
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LOCAL_LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
fi
...
LOCAL_MANPATH=${HOME}/usr/local/man:${HOME}/usr/local/share/man
if [ -z "$MANPATH" ]; then
    MANPATH=${LOCAL_MANPATH}
else
    MANPATH=${LOCAL_MANPATH}:${MANPATH}
fi
...

Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is the famous (and free) viewer of Adobe PDF files.

Download the last version of the acroread software (choose the tar.gz Linux version). Then uncompress it in the $HOME/usr/local/lib/acroread directory and remove the archive file.

[~/usr/local/lib/acroread] > tar -zxvf AdobeReader_enu-7.0.9-1.i386.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/acroread] > rm -f AdobeReader_enu-7.0.9-1.i386.tar.gz

Create the local directory structure that allows to manage different versions of Adobe Reader.

[~/usr/local/lib/acroread] > mkdir 7.0.9
[~/usr/local/lib/acroread] > ln -s 7.0.9 default

Install Adobe Reader in the $HOME/usr/local/lib/acroread/7.0.9 directory.

[~/usr/local/lib/acroread/AdobeReader] > ./INSTALL

This installation requires 111 MB of free disk space.

Enter installation directory for Adobe Reader 7.0.9 [/usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0] $HOME/usr/local/lib/acroread/7.0.9
...

You can install the browser plugin (automatic installation must be work).

Now create a link to the acroread binary file.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../lib/acroread/default/bin/acroread

Remove the installation directory.

[~/usr/local/lib/acroread] > rm -rf AdobeReader

Eclipse

The Eclipse platform is an universal tool that deals with any type of ressources (text files, Java files, C files, C++ files, Fortran files, Word files, HTML files, Linux shell script files, ...).

Download the last version of Eclipse (choose the desired package). Uncompress it in the $HOME/usr/local/lib/eclipse directory. Remove the archive file.

[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > tar -zxvf eclipse-SDK-3.3-linux-gtk.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > rm -f eclipse-SDK-3.3-linux-gtk.tar.gz

Create the local directory structure that allows to manage several versions of Eclipse

[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > mv eclipse SDK-3.3
[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > ln -s SDK-3.3 default

Create a symbolic link to the eclipse binary file.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../eclipse/default/eclipse

Firefox

This paragraph describes how to locally install Firefox, the famous web browser. This software not need to be compiled.

Download the latest version of Firefox. Then uncompress the downloaded file in the $HOME/usr/local/lib/firefox directory and remove the archive file.

[~/usr/local/lib/firefox] > tar -zxvf firefox-2.0.0.6.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/firefox] > rm -f firefox-2.0.0.6.tar.gz

To manage many versions of Firefox rename the firefox directory in the version number. And create a symbolic link from the default name to this version number directory.

[~/usr/local/lib/firefox] > mv firefox 2.0.0.6
[~/usr/local/lib/firefox] > ln -s 2.0.0.6 default

Now create another symbolic link to the firefox binary program in the $HOME/usr/local/bin directory.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../lib/firefox/default/firefox

To verify that the command firefox executes the previous installed binary as default type the following linux command. If it is not good verify your $PATH environment variable.

[~] > which firefox
~/usr/local/bin/firefox

FileZilla

FileZilla is the famous free FTP client solution first developed for Windows and now adapted for Linux environment.

Download the most recent version of the FileZilla nightly builds (i586-linux-gnu) that is successfully compiled.

Coming soon...

Java

Java is an oriented object language. The Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE) allows end-users to run Java applications.

Download the JRE (choose the Linux self-extracting file). Change directory to location $HOME/usr/local/java where the files will be installed. Then make sure that the execute permission is set on this file.

[~/usr/local/java] > chmod u+x jre-6u2-linux-i586.bin

Run the self-extracting binary. Remove the installation file.

[~/usr/local/java] > ./jre-6u2-linux-i586.bin
[~/usr/local/java] > rm -f jre-6u2-linux-i586.bin

Create the link to the default Java version.

[~/usr/local/java] > ln -s jre1.6.0_02 default

Update the $PATH environment variable.

[~] > export PATH=$HOME/usr/local/java/default/bin:$PATH

Objective Caml

Caml is a general-purpose programming language developed and distributed by INRIA. The Objective Caml system is the main implementation of the Caml language.

Download the most recent version of the Objective Caml system. Then uncompress it in the $HOME/usr/local/src/ocaml directory and remove the archive file.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm] > tar -jxvf ocaml-3.10.0.tar.bz2
[~/usr/local/src/ocalm] > rm -f ocaml-3.10.0.tar.bz2

Create the local directory structure that allows to manage different versions of OCaml.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm] > mv ocaml-3.10.0 3.10.0
[~/usr/local/src/ocalm] > ln -s 3.10.0 default

Now configure the system.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm/3.10.0] > ./configure -prefix $HOME/usr/local

If the configuration is completed successfully then build the Objective Caml bytecode compiler.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm/3.10.0] > make world.opt

Install the system.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm/3.10.0] > umask 022 ; make install

Clean up the system.

[~/usr/local/src/ocalm/3.10.0] > make clean

For more information about the installation read the INSTALL file.

Sunbird

This paragraph describes how to locally install Sunbird, a calendar application. This software not need to be compiled.

Download the most recent version of Sunbird. And adapt the process from the Firefox installation. First install the software.

[~/usr/local/lib/sunbird] > tar -zxvf sunbird-0.5.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/sunbird] > rm -f sunbird-0.5.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/sunbird] > mv sunbird 0.5
[~/usr/local/lib/sunbird] > ln -s 0.5 default

Then create the link to the sunbird binary file.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../lib/sunbird/default/sunbird

Thunderbird

This paragraph describes how to locally install Thunderbird, the well-known email application. This software not need to be compiled.

Download the latest version of Thunderbird. And adapt the process from the Firefox installation. First install the software.

[~/usr/local/lib/thunderbird] > tar -zxvf thunderbird-2.0.0.6.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/thunderbird] > rm -f thunderbird-2.0.0.6.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/lib/thunderbird] > mv thunderbird 2.0.0.6
[~/usr/local/lib/thunderbird] > ln -s 2.0.0.6 default

Then create the link to the thunderbird binary file.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../lib/thunderbird/default/thunderbird

Unison

Unison is a file-synchronization tool that allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

Download the last version of Unison. Take the current stable version of the official releases that needs OCaml compiler. Uncompress it in the $HOME/usr/local/src/unison directory and remove the archive file.

[~/usr/local/src/unison] > tar -zxvf unison-2.13.16.tar.gz
[~/usr/local/src/unison] > rm -f unison-2.13.16.tar.gz

Create the local directory structure that allows to manage different versions of Unison.

[~/usr/local/src/unison] > mv unison-2.13.16 2.13.16
[~/usr/local/src/unison] > ln -s 2.13.16 default

Build the binary (text version of Unison).

[~/usr/local/src/unison/2.13.16] > make UISTYLE=text

Install it.

[~/usr/local/src/unison/2.13.16] > make INSTALLDIR=$HOME/usr/local/bin install