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Asked: 2016-11-07 20:39:53 +0800 CST

How do I download and install an application from github?

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Im trying to get an app from github and install it on Ubuntu.

Usually in windows I just download an exe or msi file and 2x click it. But in Ubuntu its either using a PPA or a deb file or from github.

I tried googling some guides regarding github it & the closest to the concern is here. I tried following the guide but got stuck on step 2. The guide wants me to setup a github account.

I am trying to get this github app (Pesobit: PoS-based cryptocurrency).

Please guide me.

software-installation

3 Answers

    1. That Git repository contains an INSTALL file, which is a common place for building and installation instructions. It reads:

      See doc/readme-qt.rst for instructions on building Pesobit QT, the intended-for-end-users, nice-graphical-interface, reference implementation of Pesobit.

    2. In doc/readme-qt.rst we can find installation instructions “for Debian and Ubuntu”:

      First, make sure that the required packages for Qt5 development of your distribution are installed, for Debian and Ubuntu these are:

      apt-get install qt5-default qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev-tools qttools5-dev-tools build-essential libboost-dev libboost-system-dev libboost-filesystem-dev libboost-program-options-dev libboost-thread-dev libssl-dev libdb++-dev

      then execute the following:

      qmake
make

      Alternatively, install Qt Creator and open the pesobit-qt.pro file.

      An executable named pesobit-qt will be built.

      You can also find a description of some useful build options in that file.

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  2. Your posted link are instructions for setting up a Github account. You don't need to do that in order to download an application from Github.

    Let's say I want to install this Github application: (https://github.com/elmystico/EnhanceIO) that uses a small SSD to accelerate a large HDD. I click the Download button on the page and download the Zip file.

    You didn't say which application you were trying to download from Github so I couldn't use it in this answer.

    After downloading your application from Github, you might want to post a new question on how to unzip the compressed file. Then you might want to post another new question on how to compile it (if necessary).

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  3. Github is not a plug-and-play "app store" type of thing where you download compiled apps. Rather, it hosts source code that is used to build software--it is a place for app developers to publicly host their code, not the executable software. Those developers will usually package completed, stable versions of their software somewhere else for people like you to download it without having to learn how to compile things manually.

    I did some quick web searching and could not find a way to actually download pre-compiled versions of this Pesobit software, so it appears to be a bleeding-edge development and your only option may be to learn how to compile the software yourself. Note that this would apply to Windows or MacOS too, if you used either of those operating system. The project's Github page should have a basic introduction on how to compile that particular piece of software, and the file repo should have a README file that you can read to get a sense of what to do.

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