Okay .. I am a linux newb but I have to learn it for a college class I am taking. Here is my problem. At school, on their computers, I create the .c file in vi, and then run gcc on it and create the executable file (for this example, we'll call it 'example'). Then from the command line, you just type example and it runs.

On my computer at home (RH9 ... same as at school), I write the program in vi, compile it (no splint errors) and the executable is created without a problem. but when i type in 'example' to run the program, i get an error which says something like:

bash:example:no command found ... or something like that.

Can someone help me, is it a bash setting that I have to change?


also, Same problem happens when I downloaded firefox .. you should just type in firefox in the terminal (in the right directory of course) and it should run, but I get a bash:firefox:no command found ...

unlike windows linux does not search the current working directory for a command. It only searches using the path environment. At school, that directory must be in the path.

./ is a shortcut for current working directory. To execute your program:
./your_program_name

That worked, thanks!

Is there any way that I can make it search the pwd automatically?

You can add the current directory to your PATH variable.

Open the your bash profile:
vi ~/.bash_profile

Search for: PATH=something

At the end of the line append ":."

Save the file and exit vi

Then execute:
source ~/.bash_profile

Now, the current directory will be included in the search path.

I am having a hard time find my .bash_profile file ... when I type in vi ~/.bash_profile, it opens up a new blank file in the vi editor.

That's not a problem. Although, I assumed most Linux distributions would install one for each user whether it was empty or not.

No matter... Here is the entire contents of my ~/.bash_profile (it is the default Red Hat includes)
It's very simple. Lines starting with a # are ignored; they are comments to help the reader understand what the script is doing. First, it tests whether a file named ~/.bashrc exists, and if it does, it sources the file (in a shell script, the period (.) is usually a short-hand for the source command). Then it sets the PATH environment variable and "exports" it (makes it a global value in a sense. The "unset USERNAME" is probably a Red Hat thing and could be wiped (along with the bashrc stuff) if you're so inclined.

Anyway, just modify the PATH line above like mentioned earlier:
Save the file, then "source ~/.bash_profile" and that will be it.

got it! thanks!

I have another question not on this topic .. might as well see if one of you guys can answer it. I went to download the nvidia drivers and it says that I have to exit out of any x-server (gui .. ) setups and I have to run the program from a truly command prompt mode ... how do I enter into just the command prompt?

At the bootup scrren the only options are failsafe, kde, ... etc, but none of those are truly command prompt or whatever it is called.

You guys know what to do?

Oh, and thanks for all the help thus far.

Matt

Type "init 3" at a command prompt -- that will move the machine down to runlevel 3, which on Red Hat idoes not start X Windows automatically.