Hi i m trying to execute my file from with in vi.
i m using following syntax
esc :!<program-name>
m i making any mistake as it is giving me an error.

/bin/bash: program2.sh: command not found

shell returned 127


My program is this:
#This program takes 3 Parameters from user namely name,address,phonenumber and store those details in detail.out file .
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Name: '
read name
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Address: '
read address
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Phone Number: '
read phoneno
#To store output in only milind directory by doing this if we run this file within any directory the file get stored in milind directory only.
echo $name > /root/milind/details.out
echo $address >>/root/milind/details.out
echo $phoneno >>/root/milind/details.out
#Two ways of displaying the output.
echo 'Output is stored to "details.out"'
echo "Output is stored to \"details.out\""

Can you run your script from the command prompt by simply typing its name as you have after the :! in vi?

Have you set the executable permission on?

Yes i have set the executable permissions.
when i execute sh programname.sh it works

no
[root@test milind]# program2.sh
-bash: program2.sh: command not found

In linux, the present working directory isn't in the path by default.

So you should probably do:
! `pwd`/<Program_name>

End

Either your script needs to be in one of the directories listed in $PATH (use echo $PATH to see what it is) or you must give the full path to your script. The full path must begin with "/" or "." (meaning the current directory) or ~ (meaning your home directory).

You can have "." in $PATH. It's convenient but not secure so is dangerous to use for root but probably OK for ordinary users.

not working however ! sh program-name.sh worked but i want to know the reason behind it.

Assuming you have execute permisssion on your script file, it may be that the shell tries to execute the file but does not know what to execute it with. Changing the first line to #!/bin/bash would solve that problem.

If it is not that then the issue is how the shell looks for executables, as explained above. When you use sh to run the script it has a different way of looking for executables compared with simply typing in the name of the shell script at the command prompt.

When you tried `pwd`/<program name>, did you use backquotes around pwd? That is ` or did you use single quotes, that is '

You could also try :!./<program name> That is the equivalent of `pwd`/<program name>

I used ` and not ' .I also changed my first line to what you have suggested but still i m not able to run it.

How would i be able to execute it only by giving its name.

Any masked permissions in the current shell?

ie. whats the value of `umask`?

If the last character is zero, then it wont execute in the current shell but needs a sh invocation.

End

umask
0027

You can execute it by giving its name only by changing $PATH to include the directory containing program-name.sh. That will only work if you can run it using some of the methods already tried -- and it seems you cannot do that. Please start a terminal, cd to the directory containing program-name.sh, run the following commands and post the outputIt's easier to read if you put it in code tags (that's a link to instructions or you may prefer to use "Advanced Edit" mode which has a # button for code tags).

[root@test milind]# head program2.sh
#!/bin/bash
#This program takes 3 Parameters from user namely name,address,phonenumber and store those details in detail.out file .
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Name: '
read name
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Address: '
read address
echo -n 'Please Enter Your Phone Number: '
read phoneno
#To store output in only milind directory by doing this if we run this file within any directory the file get stored in milind directory only.
echo $name > /root/milind/details.out
[root@test milind]# echo $PATH
/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/root/.sysadmin/restart:/root/bin:/usr/bin/perl:/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/bin
[root@test milind]# ./program2.sh
Please Enter Your Name:

How to add into path variable