* rich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [000416 22:04]:
> I know this is probably a dumb question, but how do you add a directory to the
> path.... For instance, instead of going to /root/mozilla/ to run ./mozzila,
> I would like to be able to type ./mozilla in any directory.
If you type ./mozilla you are saying, "run the executable file
mozilla, which you will find in the current directory." So that
has nothing directly to do with the path.
The path you are talking about is the environment variable
$PATH, which gives a sequence of directories to search if no path
is given. That is, you type 'mozilla' rather than './mozilla' or
'/usr/bin/mozilla' or whatever. It is usually set in shell
scripts in /etc/profile, or in the directory /etc/profile.d/ or
in the user's home directory in a file like .bashrc ...
One note, though. Be careful. Linux will happily let you add a
world-writeable directory to the beginning of your path. In that
case anyone could add a shell script named 'mozilla' into that
directory and when you type mozilla you will run it. If it does
whatever it wants to, and then runs the regular mozilla, you
probably won't know that someone has hijacked your system. For
this reason some recommend using symlinks or typing the full
path. They must type faster than I do ;-)
--
Jan Wilson _/*]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Corozal Community College | |:' Corozal Junior College
Corozal Town, Belize | /' Central America
Visit our Corozal site |_/ http://www.corozal.com
