Very basic Unix unzip question

[bizshop]

Most unix downloadables look like this:
phpstats-0.3.2.tar.gz (and some are much longer)

Is it normal to end up with directories with version numbers after unzipping and untarring? Or is there some trick/flag to end up with just phpstats as directory (other than manually renameing file after downloading)

I don't want to have to rewrite my programs everytime I upgrade the php script

[Anon]

It is normal to end up with a directory called phpstats-0.3.2. What you want to do is create a symbolic link called phpstats that points to phpstats-0.3.2 and then if you upgrade just change the symbolic link to point to the new directory.