Direct From The Source

Throwing light into the dark recesses of open source code, Alexander Tolstoy says compiling code is easier than you think.

- Alexander Tolstoy

Normally you receive and install software via the package manager of your Linux distribution, like apt for Ubuntu, DNF for Fedora, Pacman for Arch and so on. Sometimes it’s a third-party package that you need to download and install by hand; sometimes it’s a Snap, a Flatpak or an Appimage. The common feature in all these options is that the software is already compiled into binary executables and shared libraries, with the rest being just the details of a delivery method.

However, there are situations when an application you want to run has not been compiled and packaged in any way, leaving you uncertain how to get it running. It may be a lesser-known application, or a hot fresh release of some program that you just want to try without delay. Our expert behind Hotpicks here at

LXF will share some tips and tricks on the topic and reveal the inner workings of getting hot open-source apps up and running smoothly and easily.

In this feature we’ll find out how to compile most popular applications using their source code. There is a great diversity of programming languages, build systems, frameworks and other stuff you need to take into account, and we’re going to review the most commonly used ones. So, grab the source code, a compiler and let’s go…

You start at the source, but this task is not as trivial as it seems. Most open source software is hosted at public code-sharing sites, of which the lion’s share belongs to GitHub with the rest being spread among GitLab, Launchpad and SourceForge. In most cases, you can visit a project’s page and grab the tarball with the source code as a regular download.