ever get angry cause you coded something and got it to compile on one server, but then realized when you got home you were missing tons of libraries so you couldn't compile it at home? ;(

Well, I have many times.

I was wondering where you can find specifically c/c++ libraries for the gcc compiler. What would you do with the tar.gz after you got it?

Yep, I hate that. I don't think I can help you much, but all I can say is google for the libraries you need, and unzip the tar.gz's to an appropriate system folder or your source code directory. What OS are you running?

...win xp :)

what directory would i need to put it in?

From my experience, tar.gz files are usually for Linux systems, which means you may have to find windows versions, which should come in a .zip instead. But you can try it and see if it works. I'd put them in your windows\system\ folder, although I use 98, so I don't know if it's exactly the same in XP. Putting the files in the same directory as your code should also work, so maybe try that too.

And you can also try setting up your IDE to let it know where the libraries are, or use command line options if you're using a command line compiler. There should be documentation with the gcc compiler on how to do it.

And I just thought, the libraries you downloaded should come with documentation on how to install them, or there should at least be instructions on the web page.

download winrar at www.rarlab.com
it may be able to open .gz files and compression files other than .zip

i believe winace opens the most crap?

googlie it, i cant remember for sure

7zip is _free_ and opens almost anything :) http://www.7-zip.org/

EDIT: I just reread your post and noticed you are using GCC. If you are in windows, are you using Cygwin or something? Everything should still apply though.

Also, depending on the library you downloaded you may have to compile it. you may have to do any or all of the following:

After compiling the library (if you had to; there's usually instructions on how if you need them, some come pre-compiled) place the following files in these destinations:

Place the .dll file in C:\Windows\System32, this makes the DLL global so any application can use it for now on. If you don't want the DLL global, you will have to place it in every directory that uses it, so I prefer placing it there.

Put the .lib file in the Library directory of your compiler. Mine is like so: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Lib

Put the header files (.h) in the proper header directory of your compiler. Mine is called is in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\Include

After this is done you should be all set. Have fun!