I'm trying to install a POS software in FC6. The first step is installing the program:

#mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
#cd /mnt
#sh install.sh

All is perfectly fine. Then it ask me to activate the product. To do that I have to open the POS program. The instructions says that I have to change the PATH:

PATH=.:/path2.:/path3

But I have to change it in the ./.profile file. Here's my situation. I don't know where this file is. I echoed $PATH to see if I could find that file but couldn't find it.

I searched in the forums and use the following instruction to do it fast:

export PATH=.:/path2.:/path3

But didn't work. It is supposed that after I do that instruction and change xTerm to linux, in the terminal I change to the top-level directory of the POS program and type "syn" to open it. And when I do all of this the terminal sends a message that I have to change de KEYFILE variable. KEYFILE?????? It also gaves me an example:

env KEYFILE=inputfile syn

But env is not recognized as a comand.

Can anyone tell me what am I doing wrong and also tell me where is the ./.profile????

This (./) means the file is in the current, working directory. Given what information you provided, the current working directory would be /mnt.

The leading (.) in the .profile file name means the file is hidden. Use ls -a to see hidden files.

Means you just hosed up your environment variable PATH. This variable lists all the directories that are searched for executables. I'll bet you don't have any directories named /path2 and /path3.

./ = present directory
However since you did a cd /mnt it is doubtful it wants you to edit anything there (nor can you if its a CD as its read only).

.profile is a special script file that should be in a user's home directory. During login this file is "sourced" so that it puts things in the user's environment. The .profile you need to change is the one in the home directory for the user that will run the POS software.
You can get to a user's home directory simply by typing cd ~<username>.

env is a shell builtin (for ksh, sh and bash) to show you environment settings.

If "env" isn't working it makes me think you're not running one of the above shells. csh is completely different.

Also were you logged in as root when you did the install? Many installations have to be done by root so as to allow for the creation of things they don't own yet.

Type "ps" and see what it shows you. This should give you lines showing only your processes such as:
PID TTY TIME CMD
15827 pts/1 00:00:00 ksh
16635 pts/1 00:00:00 ps

From the above you can see I was running ksh. You can also check your shell by typing "grep <username> /etc/passwd" where username is the one you're logged in as - this will show you the default shell for that user at the end of the line.

I enteres ls -a but there is no .profile in the home directory. Can I add the executable to one of the folders specified in the PATH variable to run it?

Are you running a bash shell? If so then you can add it to .bashrc instead of .profile. (You can create .profile by the way.)

The .profile file is used in a unix environment using the Bourne shell , the Linux environment uses the Bash shell ( Bourne Again SHell ) and the .bash_profile file is used to set the user's environment.
Do a ls -a listing for the .bash_profile entry and it should be listed.

As for entering the path variables use :
To check out the current path settings use :
To run the .bash_profile to create the new environment , use the command
. .bash_profile
( note the dot before the .bash_profile command )


I will post you the contents of my .bash_profile so that you can get a better understanding of a working .bash_profile.
( I am running FC5 & FC3 )