Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 November 6

= November 6 =

Setting URL for Local Server
I'm running RStudio on a local server in my home office (Linux). It's configured to listen on port 8787, so to use it, I type "server.local:8787" into my web browser. Is there a way to assign an alias URL such as "server.local/rstudio" that I can use instead of the port number? This is all on my local network, and would just be for me to use. OldTimeNESter (talk) 21:38, 6 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Is there a reason you aren't configuring to use the standard port 80? If it used port 80, you could just type "server.local". Otherwise, any alias URL you attempt to use such as "server.local/rstudio" is going to access port 80 and not find anything listening on that port. (Unless there is some other program listening on port 80 and that's why you're using 8787 -- if that's the case you'd need to set up the alias in whatever that other program is.) You could possibly create an alias on each client that uses the server, but that seems rather tedious and error prone.  CodeTalker (talk) 23:53, 6 November 2017 (UTC)
 * RStudio uses port 8787 by default, and I actually have another program using port 80. I can remember accessing programs built around Apache Tomcat without typing in the port number; perhaps it only works there? OldTimeNESter (talk) 04:17, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Can you configure the program listening on port 80 to answer a query for "/rstudio" with a redirect to "http://server.local:8787/"? If so, that'd seem to serve the purpose. Speaker to Lampposts (talk) 08:18, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

Upgrading firefox on Slackware xfce
Hello,

I installed slackware 14.2, 64 bit on my laptop a few minutes ago. I got everything working, but the installation came with an older version of firefox. I have used linux mint before this, but I am fairly new to linux. In about section, the firefox is displayed as "firefox ESR 45.2.0. Firefox is up to date." How do I upgrade it?

Also, how do I install softwares from a .tar.bz2 file? The official mozilla site says there is a 56.0.2.tar.bz2 version of firefox for my linux. How do I install it? Thanks a lot in advance. 59.94.7.66 (talk) 22:12, 6 November 2017 (UTC)


 * The current version of tar (computing) on my Linux machine will read a .tar.bz2 file directly, but you can always use the option  to make sure it understands what to expect.  Or is it that you're not familiar with using tar at all? --69.159.60.147 (talk) 03:56, 7 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have zero experience with actual linux, as Linux mint was totally automated/windows like. So, what should I do now? (I am the OP, I've dynamic IPs) 117.200.201.99 (talk) 13:15, 7 November 2017 (UTC)


 * The bz2 extension means that it is bunzipped. You can use bunzip2 to unzip it. The usage is "bunzip2 file_to_unzip.bz2". In your case, you will end up with a file that has a tar extension. That is similar to a zipped file. You untar it using the tar command. The usage is "tar x file_to_untar.tar". There are many flags people like to use, such as v for verbose and f for file archive mode (keep permissions and such). So, you will see most people do something like "tar xvf file_to_untar.tar". Most versions of tar have bz2 built in. The z flag will unzip a bz2 file so tar can untar it. So, in your case, you only really need to use "tar zxvf your_file.tar.bz2". You will get a set of directories with all the files. But, that is the easy part. Now, you need to compile the program. The program should come with a "readme" file somewhere in the archive. Read that to get proper instructions for installation. Most programs are written in C++, so they have a similar installation process: First, you run "configure", then you run "make", then you run "make install". Unfortunately, it isn't that easy. What really happens is that you run configure, find out you are missing a dependency, and then spend time hunting down and installing that dependency. Then, you run configure again, find out you are missing another dependency, and you have to get that installed. After a dozen or so rounds of this, you might be lucky to get it to configure. Then, you run make to find out that the version of one of your programs is either too old or too new. You have to remove it, break other stuff already installed, and install the proper version. Then, run make again and go through the same routine. If you ever get it to make, you can run make install and find out that it attempts to install to a directory that you don't have permission to use. So, you have to start all over as root and risk dorking up your entire operating system. Then, you realize that this is specifically why people stick with Linux distributions that have good package managers. I use RedHat (and CentOS) because I work on professional systems. I feel most home users are still into Ubuntu (a Debian knock-off). Both RedHat and Ubuntu have very good package managers. In RedHat, if I want to install the latest version of Firefox that has been cleared by RedHat, I run "dnf install firefox" and it will take care of everything for me. Warning: Not all package managers are equal. I've worked with people who use other flavors of Linux and, as an example, one used Arch Linux. He spent days fighting with package conflicts. I haven't once had a package conflict with RedHat. But, there are many programs that I can't install because they aren't in the package manager. Arch has practically everything in their package manager. Which do you want? A package manager with everything you could think of and plenty of conflicts or one that is highly regulated? 209.149.113.5 (talk) 13:36, 7 November 2017 (UTC)


 * While I was searching for packages, and package managers and firefox, I found out on freebsd it takes only "pkg install firefox" to install it, or any other software. Is there a similar way to do this on slackware? I think freebsd takes care of dependencies. I do not need a lot of softwares, I would require only firefox to be updated I think. I can use the pre-installed softwares like wine, xine, mplayer, GIMP and others. Is there any simple way to do that? 117.200.201.99 (talk) 17:32, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I thoroughly read https://www.slackbook.org/html/package-management.html but it was not helpful at all. 117.200.201.99 (talk) 17:34, 7 November 2017 (UTC)


 * I last used Slackware around 1995. At the time, the point was that the user had to compile and install everything from source. It was very anti-package manager. I don't know what the current state of the project is. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 17:44, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It looks like Slackware officially got a package manager in version 12. It is the pkgtool system. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 18:02, 7 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I am still unable to install/update it. Can you provide me link to help page of that package manager or something like that? 117.215.62.146 (talk) 11:43, 10 November 2017 (UTC)

I updated my Firefox on Slackware recently. I used the method provided in #4 post of this forum. It should work for you as well. If there are further complications/issues, kindly let me know. — usernamekiran (talk)  17:12, 11 November 2017 (UTC)