Hello,

I've recently installed Slackware 10.0 and want to install some
software. Previously, I had Knoppix with it's 'apt-get' package
managemant.
Now, there are tarballs in Slack, so I have a simple question...
... I dowloaded some software and after decopressing it I usally
have two folders: "usr" and "bin". I found I can run program
directly from bin, however I'd like to ask what is "doinst.sh"
in "install" folder? I supoose it is intended to install application,
but how to run it?

Thanks in advance and greets,

./doinst.sh
or
sh doinst.sh

if that doesnt work try
chmod +x doinst.sh
./doinst.sh

Thanks o lot :-)
"./" tells bash to exectute it as "sh" am I right?

If I install any softare as a root will other user see this software or shall I simply
istall it as a user??

it may seem overly obvious, but i'm going to say it anyway...

when issuing the ./doinstall.sh command, make sure that your current working directory is the same as the one that contains this script. the ./ is telling the system "in this directory." you could possibly run a script that you don't intend if you were to give this command from another directory (assuming that other directory contained a file named doinst.sh).

this may not seem like a big issue, since you may not often find scripts named doinst.sh, but consider giving a ./configure command from the wrong directory. configure scripts are everywhere. you can check your working directory with the command pwd.

as stated above, the ./ tells the system that the executable script is in this current working directory, so execute it. when you normally give a command the system checks the directories in your $PATH environment variable for that executable. if it isn't found in those directories, then you get the "command not found" error. you can find out what directories are in your PATH by giving the command hope this helps.

Hello,
well, I got your point. And yes, I had to use chmod +x (i guess it gives permission to
execute...).
But I tried it on many install scripts and I am gettin messages like "Broken symbolic link
to..."

What could be the problem?

A symbolic link is like a windows shortcut, type
ls -l <filename>
to show where abouts a file is supposed to be linked to.
./ tells bash to execute the file from the current directory.
If the tarball has a /usr and /bin directory it is possibly a slackware package
in which case you can use installpkg as root to install it.