Compiling software from source - a rough & ready guide
Preliminaries
1) Obtain the source code for the application you need. It will be in compressed format so the next step is
2) Unzip it. Navigate to the folder and read any documentation that may help you. It may save you a lot of time!
Build your software
Though there are are different systems for building software (scons springs to mind) the most common method is as follows. Open a terminal and navigate to the folder containg the source code. Run the following commands:
./configure
make
make install (this last command must be run as root).
If you complete these steps your software should be installed & ready to use. If you need to remove it just use:
make uninstall