Installing Boost on Unix...can't unzip boost library

Question

I am trying to install Boost on an unix cluster machine following the Boost instructions

I downloaded boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2 and was then instructed to execute the following command: tar --bzip2 -xf /path/to/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2

However it didn't work and this is the output I get:

tar --bzip2 -xf /path/to/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2

tar: /path/to/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2: Cannot open: No such file or directory

tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

tar: Child returned status 2

tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

Answer 1

By /path/to/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2 they mean the path to the downloaded file, wherever you happened to save it on your machine. So if you downloaded it in /home/Elpezmuerto, the path would be /home/Elpezmuerto/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2.

Answer 2

You don't literally write /path/to/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2.

If the archive is in the current directory, you write ./boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2, for instance. Or if you saved it in the /tmp directory, the command would be tar --bzip2 -xf /tmp/boost_1_43_0.tar.bz2.

Instructions that use /path/to/some/file to indicate that you need to use your own path are pretty common. You'll need to be careful about reading the commands before you execute them in the future, too.