RE: seemingly dumb-ass question

[David Korn <dkorn at pixelpower dot com>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gareth Clark [mailto:balloonbending@yahoo.com]
>Sent: 16 February 2001 13:21

>This is probably very easily answered but when i want
>to run a program which I have compiled with 'gcc
>filename.c -o filename.exe' how do i run it? if i type
>filename.exe i just get 'command not found' back. 
>I am using Red Hat 6.2 with the default version of
>gcc. 

    Hi Gareth,

 It is indeed very easy.  Linux doesn't search the current directory for
programs to be run unless you specifically add it to the path with a line
such as

 export PATH=$PATH:.

or alternatively, you can specify that your executable is in the current
directory when you try to run it by putting ./ in front of the filename

 ./filename.exe

  Of these, it is better to get into the habit of adding ./ to your 
commands, because having the current directory in your path is theoretically
a security risk (if someone could arrange for a trojan version of ls, for
example, to be in one of your directories, you might accidentally run it
when you tried to get a directory listing; if you don't have . in the path
that can't happen).

    cheers, 
        DaveK
-- 
we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers.
we are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp.
                    deal with it.                      - cluetrain.org 


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