On Sun, 11 Nov 2001, cyborg wrote: > does linux have a set of files that are compairable directly to > autoexec.bat and config.sys
I wouldn't say "directly comparable," no. > what I mean is there a specific directory that these files are located > in the linux file system ? Steven already mentioned where you find them in Slack and BasicLinux. In Red Hat, you still find them in /etc/rc.d but using different names. The startup procedure for each distribution can be slightly different, but most do tend to put the init files in /etc/rc.d. If Loopham is different, I wouldn't know. > what file determines the "path" in linux and > is it always located in the same place in all linux directorys? The $PATH variable contains the directories and order in which the shell will search for an executable. If I type 'echo $PATH' I get /usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/steve/bin:/usr/sbin So, if I type 'arachne' the shell will first look in /usr/local/bin. If it's there, it'll execute it. Suppose I had a different version of arachne in /usr/bin, also named simply 'arachne'. In that case the command 'arachne' will never run it. In order to run that version, I'd need to type '/usr/bin/arachne' (or alternately './arachne' if I'm in /usr/bin) The $PATH variable is set up from the initialization files, but then you also can add to that default path in your .bash_profile. (This is a hidden file in your home directory.) > the author of the linux version "loopham" did not help me in any way! Maybe he's less tolerant of being called an a-hole than some of the rest of us. I don't understand why you'd want to run a French distribution anyway when there are dozens of English ones you could use. > back in the "80's" when I discovered how dos was like a file > cabinet,with drawers and folders and papaers (files) ,it all suddenly > made sense to me. does anyone know any basic things about linux that > would relate an understanding in linux as was in dos? Same thing. A directory contains either files or sub-directories. Cabinet, drawer, folders, papers. It's all the same. (except that in Linux, devices also reside in directories) The major thing that's different is that instead of having a single directory called /arachne and having all /arache related things in that one directory, Linux organizes things according to function. All the executables are in certain directories, configuration files are in certain directories, documentation files are in certain directories, etc. That might not seem to make sense initially, but once you get into it, and understand the way permissions work in a multi-user OS, it'll make more sense. Again, the exact directory names for the various functions can vary from distribution to distribution, but pretty much all of them will have executables in /bin, /usr/bin, /sbin, /usr/sbin & /usr/local/bin. Configuration files generally live in /etc. Documentation generally goes into /usr/doc, and man pages generally reside in subdirectories under /usr/man, though the 'man' program should know where to find them. If you want to find out command line switches for the man program, type 'man man'. If you want to find out what programs deal with internet functions, for instance, use 'man -k internet'. Full Linux distributions contain a wealth of documentation, so the first things to learn are the tools that let you access it all. - Steve
