How to unpack and install .tar.bz2 library ?

Hi,

I am trying to unpack and install .tar.bz2 library.
I was told to cd /
and than tar -jxvf /source-of-library-file?...tar.bz2

to get files unpacked and installed into /

Darius

[admin@oo /]$ pwd
/
[admin@oo /]$
[admin@oo /]$ tar -jxvf /tmp/local/root/ncurses-dev-addon.tar.bz2
ncurses-dev-addon/
ncurses-dev-addon: Cannot mkdir: Read-only file system
ncurses-dev-addon/include/
ncurses-dev-addon/include: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/eti.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/eti.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/form.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/form.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/menu.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/menu.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/nc_tparm.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/nc_tparm.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses_dll.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses_dll.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/panel.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/panel.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term_entry.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term_entry.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/termcap.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/termcap.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/tic.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/tic.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/unctrl.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/unctrl.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses.h: Cannot create symlink to `ncurses/ncurses.h': No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/
ncurses-dev-addon/lib: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libform.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libform.a: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libmenu.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libmenu.a: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libncurses.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libncurses.a: Cannot open: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libpanel.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libpanel.a: Cannot open: No such file or directory
Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
[admin@oo /]$

"Read-only file system" is the clue, if the .tar.bz2 library is on a cdrom then copy it to somewhere writeable (e.g. /) first then do the extraction, also you may need to uncompress it with bunzip2 if tar -z does not support that format although what you show looks promising on that matter.
You will also need to be the root user in oder to write to /.

Thanks for your kind help.
In my case, Linux embedded device, / is read-only file system
/opt is writeable
so I copied .tar.bz2 into /opt
than run tar
and finished.

Thanks my friend.

Jack

[admin@oo root]$ tar -jxvf /opt/ncurses-dev-addon.tar.bz2
ncurses-dev-addon/
ncurses-dev-addon/include/
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.764503 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/eti.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/eti.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.762421 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/form.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/form.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.748008 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/menu.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/menu.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.740242 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/nc_tparm.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/nc_tparm.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.732191 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.690578 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses_dll.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/ncurses_dll.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.683104 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/panel.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/panel.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.682004 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.654569 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term_entry.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/term_entry.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.646341 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/termcap.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/termcap.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.645087 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/tic.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/tic.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.637417 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/unctrl.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/unctrl.h: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:13:20 is 1236923988.629317 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:14:10 is 1236924038.628492 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/
ncurses-dev-addon/include: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:56:11 is 1236926559.62732 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libform.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libform.a: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:19:31 is 1236924359.574651 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libmenu.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libmenu.a: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:19:44 is 1236924372.548226 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libncurses.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libncurses.a: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:19:53 is 1236924381.311783 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libpanel.a
ncurses-dev-addon/lib/libpanel.a: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:20:01 is 1236924389.297006 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon/lib: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:55:45 is 1236926533.29278 s in the future
ncurses-dev-addon: time stamp 2009-03-13 08:54:33 is 1236926461.292273 s in the future
[admin@oo root]$

follow-up

ops
installed library into wrong /root directory

copied library into /opt
and no chance
the same with /

Jack

[admin@oo root]$ cd /
[admin@oo /]$ tar -jxvf /opt/ncurses-dev-addon.tar.bz2
ncurses-dev-addon/
ncurses-dev-addon: Cannot mkdir: Read-only file system
ncurses-dev-addon/include/
ncurses-dev-addon/include: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses: Cannot mkdir: No such file or directory
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h
ncurses-dev-addon/include/ncurses/curses.h: Cannot open: No such file or directory

folloow-up 2
\
Ok. I am root user.
The problem is /lib and /include archives have been placed into
/ncurses-dev-addon directory
and that directory has been archived

[admin@oo root]$ tar -jxvf /opt/ncurses-dev-addon.tar.bz2

so running any tar to unpack and install archives
/ncurses-dev-addon directory is first created
in /opt
so /lib and /include from archives don't go into
/opt/lib and /opt/include
as they go into
/opt/ncurses-dev-addon
/opt/ncurses-dev-addon

Visited fsf and gnu for tar man pages
http://www.gnu.org/software/tar/manual/tar.txt

and there is no way not to have /ncurses-dev-addon directory
to be created on unpacking of the archives.

So, do I need to unpack archives and pack them again, not using
/ncurses-dev--addon directory
to install library finally ?

If you are aware of any other solution, please let me know.

Plain copy doesn't work as
/lib is read-only file system

Darius