Hi i was just wondering what does the command ./ << do? or ./configure?

It usually runs the script with the name configure. But read the readme file that comes with the package. There are detailed intructions in there.

./ is not a command but an indication of a location. the "." means your current directory (to know where you are type "pwd" Print Working Directory) and can be used e.g. for copying files to the place you are

$ cp /mnt/cdrom/file1 .

will copy "file1" to your curent working directory

If you want to run an application or a script from your current directory you cannot give the command .script, because the "." is also used for hidden files. So you have to type "./" which basically means "in this directory"

./configure serves to invoke a configuration script of an application your installing. It tells your shell to run the "configure" script in the current directory. You have to tell it that it is there because otherwise it would look in your path (/bin or /sbin or similar)

"./" is the current directory
"./somefile" excutes somefile in current directory. this is the full path of "somefile"
if, the current directory is not in the path. so you give the full path to be enabled to run

mustafa

ahh thanks its kinda like clicking setup.exe in windows or something similar along the line

how about when type exit in terminal a message saying "there are jobs stopped" appears. what does that mean and how do i stop it from coming up?
would anything happen if i just closed the terminal window?

if you find typing "./" is annoying

open up a text editor and type in:

alias="./"

save it in your home dir and restart

save it in your home dir and restart
restart?? i think u mean logout and re-login?
also, save alias="./" in what file? ~/.bashrc or what?

mustafa

u can even do source ~/.bashrc to activate the changes in .bashrc without restarts

krabizon3, your shell implements something called job control. That is you can run things in the background while still being able to type new commands into the shell. The stopped jobs warning is reminding you that you have jobs stopped in the background. You can log out, and those jobs will be destroyed. If you want to see what they are, type "jobs" at your shell prompt. You will see a list of your jobs and whether they are running or stopped. To bring a job to the foreground type fg %<job number> and to run a stopped job in the background type bg %<job number>. To kill a background process you can do kill %<job number>.

Note that all of this assumes the bash shell.