Compile the package: make -f Makefile-libbz2_so && make And finish off installing the package: make install Copy the Bzip2 binary into the /bin directory, make some neccessary symbolic links and clean up. cp bzip2-shared /bin/bzip2 && cp -a libbz2.so* /lib && ln -s ../../lib/libbz2.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libbz2.so && rm /usr/bin/{bunzip2,bzcat,bzip2} && mv /usr/bin/{bzip2recover,bzless,bzmore} /bin && ln -s bzip2 /bin/bunzip2 && ln -s bzip2 /bin/bzcat make -f Makefile-libbz2_so: This will cause bzip2 to be built using a different Makefile file, in this case the Makefile-libbz2_so file, which creates a dynamic libbz2.so library and links the bzip2 utilities against it.