Doing 6 tests (3 compress, 3 uncompress) ... If there's a problem, things might stop at this point. ./bzip2 -1 < sample1.ref > sample1.rb2 ./bzip2 -2 < sample2.ref > sample2.rb2 ./bzip2 -3 < sample3.ref > sample3.rb2 ./bzip2 -d < sample1.bz2 > sample1.tst ./bzip2 -d < sample2.bz2 > sample2.tst ./bzip2 -ds < sample3.bz2 > sample3.tst cmp sample1.bz2 sample1.rb2 cmp sample2.bz2 sample2.rb2 cmp sample3.bz2 sample3.rb2 cmp sample1.tst sample1.ref cmp sample2.tst sample2.ref cmp sample3.tst sample3.ref If you got this far and the 'cmp's didn't complain, it looks like you're in business. To install in /usr/local/bin, /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/man and /usr/local/include, type make install To install somewhere else, eg, /xxx/yyy/{bin,lib,man,include}, type make install PREFIX=/xxx/yyy If you are (justifiably) paranoid and want to see what 'make install' is going to do, you can first do make -n install or make -n install PREFIX=/xxx/yyy respectively. The -n instructs make to show the commands it would execute, but not actually execute them. Instructions for use are in the preformatted manual page, in the file bzip2.txt. For more detailed documentation, read the full manual. It is available in Postscript form (manual.ps), PDF form (manual.pdf), and HTML form (manual.html). You can also do "bzip2 --help" to see some helpful information. "bzip2 -L" displays the software license.