How to know if something's installed, and where to find it?

Tomás Ó hÉilidhe · 02-19-2008, 05:03 PM

I've been told that OpenVPN comes shipped with Slackware 12.

I did a full install of Slackware 12 from a bootable DVD. Then when I booted into Slackware on my hard disk, I opened up a terminal and typed "openvpn". The response I got was:

-bash: openvpn: command not found

Does this not suggest that either:
1) OpenVPN is in fact *not* installed.
2) The containing directory for "openvpn" is not in the $PATH.

If OpenVPN really is shipped with Slackware, then where can I find it on my hard disk? Also, does anyone know why they didn't add this path to $PATH (if such is the case)?

What's the story with /opt and /usr/bin? Which one is the place where you put your programs?

When you do a fresh install from Slackware 12, what's the best way to go about upgrading it fully? When I was using Backtrack, I just did "slapt-get --upgrade". Does Slackware have such a feature?

I imagine, for something like slapt-get to work, that there must be a database somewhere on the hard disk that lists the names of the currently installed programs. Presumably, slapt-get then compares the versions with the latest versions and, if necessary, downloads the latest ones. That right?

Is there anything in Slackware that aids in the use of capital versus non-capital letters? For instance, let's say I typed in "OpenVPN" instead of "openvpn", is there any kind of facility that will tell me:

-bash: OpenVPN: command not found (but we did find openvpn)

ice_nine · 02-19-2008, 05:17 PM

This binary is located at /usr/sbin/openvpn. Type 'man openvpn' to read the manual.

The reason you get 'command not found' is because the /usr/sbin folder is not in the PATH of a regular user (by default), it's in root's default PATH however. This is probably done because in order to run openvpn properly, you need to run it as root (as it changes network settings and routes).

As far as finding files on your computer goes, I use 'slocate'. In a nutshell, you build a database by running 'updatedb' as root, then look for the file/folder with the locate command (as any user).

Quote:

What's the story with /opt and /usr/bin? Which one is the place where you put your programs?

The wikipedia page has a good outline of the filesystem layout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesys...archy_Standard

truthfatal · 02-19-2008, 05:19 PM

To find if a Slackware package has been installed

Code:

$ ls /var/adm/packages | grep $PACKAGE

works for me.

Code:

nelson@slaptop:~$ ls /var/adm/packages/ | grep openvpn
openvpn-2.0.9-i486-1
nelson@slaptop:~$

If you don't have OpenVPN installed then you didn't do a full install.

To upgrade Slackware the default way, read the changelogs found at your friendly neighbourhood Slackware Mirror, download the packages in the patches/ folder and use pkgtool
You could also install Slackpkg from the extra/ directory in the mirrors or on one of your install disks, the upgrade process for that is found in the slackpkg man pages.

Quote:

I imagine, for something like slapt-get to work, that there must be a database somewhere on the hard disk that lists the names of the currently installed programs. Presumably, slapt-get then compares the versions with the latest versions and, if necessary, downloads the latest ones. That right?

See /var/adm/packages (or /var/log/packages because on my system /var/adm is a symlink to /var/log/)

Quote:

Is there anything in Slackware that aids in the use of capital versus non-capital letters? For instance, let's say I typed in "OpenVPN" instead of "openvpn", is there any kind of facility that will tell me

I don't think so.

masonm · 02-19-2008, 05:24 PM

slackpkg is a very good tool for keeping your Slack system up to date, but I would still strongly suggest you read changelogs.

mRgOBLIN · 02-19-2008, 06:39 PM

Ok now we know you've been told not to run everything as root but there are times when you need to do so.

The /sbin and /usr/sbin directories are not in the normal users $PATH by default and are pretty much intended for use by the root user.

As mentioned already, a list of each packages contents that are installed installed are in /var/log/packages/

A quick way of finding something is to use the locate command (you will need to run "updatedb" as root at least once) then you can use

Code:

locate openvpn
or
locate -i OpEnVPn (for a case insensitive search)

Use slackpkg (you'll find it in the /extra directory) to keep your system up to date.

You should really go read that slackbook (as you've been threatening to do for some time now) you would have saved us all so much typing