Use the make command. For most modern systems, make -s clean generic or a specific optimized build like make -s clean linux-x86-64-avx will work best.
Use the command tar -xvzf john-1.8.0-jumbo-1.tar.gz to unpack the directory.
Use the --rules flag to let John try variations of your dictionary words (e.g., changing "password" to "P@ssw0rd1").
The primary source for all versions of John the Ripper. You can find the source code and pre-compiled binaries in their historical release section.