On Sat, 26 Jan 2002, Clarence Verge wrote:

> You are correct in assuming that information is required on how to
> install programs. I ALSO wish it was as simple as copying the 
> executeable to some likely place and just running it, but it isn't.

  You *can* create a directory like /home/you/bin, 
and add that to your path, 'PATH=$PATH:/home/you/bin'.
Put all "your" programs there, and they execute without
you having to type the whole path, or having to be in
that dir and typing './programname'

> First, it seems all the executeables go in /usr/bin.

or /sbin or /usr/sbin or /bin.

> Second, these things usually have other files associated with them
> that seem do go wherever they like, all by themselves.

  Global config files generally go under /etc.
Personal config files usually go under .programnamerc
(hidden, so 'ls -al' to see)

> Third, (maybe should be first) these applications apparantly only
> work with certain flavors of Linux which agree with them.

  Generally, any post-1995 executable will work on any
post-1995 Linux distribution.  Certain package types
run on certain types of systems, but tarballs should 
run on any system.

> I sent the RPM because I THINK it contains everything - the
> executeable, the docs and some info that allows an uninstall to 
> find everything. However, I believe it needs another executeable,
> maybe called simply rpm, which Baslinux doesn't seem to have.

  Right.  programname-1.2.3.rpm needs rpm to be 
installed.  (I thought mc included rpm, but another 
of your mails indicates that not to be the case, at
least sometimes.)

> When I used it, I used it with PygmyLinux. All the small Linuxii
> I have seem to have a little program or thing called rpm (6900 bytes)
> which is hidden deep in a directory belonging to Midnight Commander.

  On my system it's simply in /bin/rpm and it's
much larger than 6900 bytes.  ;-)

> I moved a copy of this to Baslinux and couldn't figure out how to
> make it work. It seems to have no internal help.

'rpm --help' ?
 
> I believe RPM stands for Redhat Package Manager. I'm probably wrong.

  Nope.  You're right.  ;-)
 
> If someone else will provide info on what commands will make it work, 
> I'll provide rpm.

  The rpm you have (which you found deep within mc),
will likely not work as a standalone program but give
it a try anyway with 'rpm -ivh packagename-1.2.3.rpm'
and see what happens.

> I also moved the basic.tgz to baslinux and gunzipped it. It blew
> up to 61400 bytes so I think it is a different basic and not part
> of the package I sent you.

  Hmmm... the one I have (which is I *thought* the 
one I sent you) is 
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root    41968 May  5  1998 /usr/bin/basic

 - Steve


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