Prepare Gzip for compilation: ./configure --prefix=/usr The gzexe program has the location of the gzip binary hardcoded into it. Because we later change the location of this binary, the following command will place the new location into the gzexe binary. cp gzexe.in{,.backup} sed 's%"BINDIR"%/bin%' gzexe.in.backup > gzexe.in Compile the package: make Install the package: make install And move the programs to the /bin directory: mv /usr/bin/gzip /bin rm /usr/bin/{gunzip,zcat} ln -s gzip /bin/gunzip ln -s gzip /bin/zcat ln -s gunzip /bin/uncompress