Installing FileZilla from tar.bz2
How to extract and install FileZilla from tar.bz2 in Ubuntu.
Edited: 2023-01-07 23:26
FileZilla does not provide a .deb file for Ubuntu systems, insetad offering a tar.bz2 file that needs to be extracted and manually installed.
Of course, you should probably just install FileZilla from your Linux distribution's official package manager, but if you want to install the latest version, the tar.bz2 is the way to go.
1. Extract the tar.bz2 file. E.g. Right click on it and choose "Extract here" or use the terminal:
tar -xf FileZilla_3.62.2_x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
Note. Probably extracts to ./FileZilla3/ in the same directory.
2. Move the extracted files to /opt/FileZilla3/. E.g:
sudo mv FileZilla3 /opt/
3. Create the desktop (shortcut) file at ~/.local/share/applications/FileZilla.desktop. E.g:
sudo nano ~/.local/share/applications/FileZilla.desktop
Paste the following content into the file (ctrl + shift + v in a terminal):
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Exec=/opt/FileZilla3/bin/filezilla
Name=FileZilla
Comment=FileZilla SFTP Client
Icon=/opt/FileZilla3/share/icons/hicolor/480x480/apps/filezilla.png
The desktop shortcut is now available when you search. E.g by pressing: alt + space in Kubuntu and searching for "filezilla".
What is a tar.bz2 file
A file with the .tar.bz2 extension is a tar archive that has been compressed with bzip2; .tbz2 is an alternative file extension.
When using the tar utility to extract a file, it will automatically try to determine the compression algorithm used. E.g:
tar -xf FileZilla_3.62.2_x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.bz2
The -x argument is used for extraction, and -f to provide the path for a compressed file. In this case a bzip2 compressed file.
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