how to do step no.4 in installing civiCRM standalone

[Mark]

Hello there,

I find it hard to follow this instruction below. i used windows OS and i'am installing civicrm 3.1.4 standalone in a linux remote server. We used an ftp application to connect to server. We've finished step 1,2,3 and its really hard to understand what to do on the next step.

(Step no. 4)
      Untar the archive to your web-root (defaults to /var/www/ on Ubuntu and /var/www/html on Red Hat / CentOS). You'll need to get a shell on your Linux system if you don't already have one. Usually this is done via SSH for a remote web server or by running a Terminal if you're using a Linux system locally.

Can anybody help me how to do this step and if possible, also the next steps?

Your help is much appreciated.

thanks,
mark

[jsherk]

After using ftp to upload file to remote server, you will now need to gain shell access... you will need a program like PuTTY from here:
http://www.putty.org/

Once you have putty installed you will need to connect to your server.. probably you can use the same username and password you used for ftp.

Once connected, you will have a flashing cursor at the command line prompt. You need to Change Driectories to the directory where you put the civi file that you uploaded. For example, on my server, I type:
cd /home/public_html/civicrm
and hit enter.

Now, if the file ends in .tar.gz then type this (if it just ends in .tar then skip this step):
gunzip filename.tar.gz
and hit enter.

Now the file should just end in .tar (with no .gz on the end). Type this:
tar xvf filename.tar
and hit enter.

This should extract all the files.

Hope this helps.

[jsherk]

Turns out standalone version is being phased out , so you may not want to waste your time on it... just bite the bullet, install Drupal, and consider CiviCRM as an add-on module for Drupal (which is kinda how it works)!