[bkb]

When trying to launch GNU's Backgammon, i usuall just type:

cd /sw/bin
. gnubg

I am now getting this error:

bash: ����: command not found

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks,
BKB.

[MacGorilla]

try ./gnubg

[bkb]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
try ./gnubg

That worked. What's the difference?

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by bkb:
That worked. What's the difference?

Hmmm....one works, one doesn't?

That's always the way you launch apps that aren't in your $PATH. I have never heard of trying it any other way.

[bkb]

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
Hmmm....one works, one doesn't?

That's always the way you launch apps that aren't in your $PATH. I have never heard of trying it any other way.

Hm...

So how come typing:
. gimp

when in /sw/bin

launches GIMP?

[MacGorilla]

Originally posted by bkb:
Hm...

So how come typing:
. gimp

when in /sw/bin

launches GIMP?

Interesting. Like I said, I never heard of that before.

[macmike42]

. (space) script-name

will run a script within your current shell. If the file is not a shell script, the command will fail. Any changes that such a script makes to your environment will remain in effect after the script completes, since it is actually running within your shell, instead of in a sub-shell.

./command-name (note no spaces)

will run any executable in the current directory. If command-name is a script, your shell will launch a new interpretter to run the script (bash, perl, etc), thereby leaving your current shell environment untouched.

The reason the first one works for The GIMP is that /sw/bin/gimp is a shell script used to launch The GIMP and open image files. The actual executable is /sw/bin/gimp.real (or something similar). One of the reasons for this is so you can say "gimp somefile.png" to open files in the currently-running instance of The GIMP, without launching another copy of the application.

[bkb]

Originally posted by macmike42:
. (space) script-name

will run a script within your current shell. If the file is not a shell script, the command will fail. Any changes that such a script makes to your environment will remain in effect after the script completes, since it is actually running within your shell, instead of in a sub-shell.

./command-name (note no spaces)

will run any executable in the current directory. If command-name is a script, your shell will launch a new interpretter to run the script (bash, perl, etc), thereby leaving your current shell environment untouched.

The reason the first one works for The GIMP is that /sw/bin/gimp is a shell script used to launch The GIMP and open image files. The actual executable is /sw/bin/gimp.real (or something similar). One of the reasons for this is so you can say "gimp somefile.png" to open files in the currently-running instance of The GIMP, without launching another copy of the application.

Thanks for the clarification.

[[APi]TheMan]

Originally posted by macmike42:
. (space) script-name

will run a script within your current shell. If the file is not a shell script, the command will fail. Any changes that such a script makes to your environment will remain in effect after the script completes, since it is actually running within your shell, instead of in a sub-shell.

And I believe this is called "sourcing" the file, or at least that's what this action is called in tcsh. You often need to source a file such as .profile to set up the current shell with environment variables and aliases. For example, if I made changes to my .profile and I wanted them to be reflected in the current shell without having to log out, I'd source the new file. Check it out:

Code:
[theman@computer: ~]$ echo $macnn

[theman@computer: ~]$ echo "export macnn='hello'" >> .profile 
[theman@computer: ~]$ . .profile 
[theman@computer: ~]$ echo $macnn
hello

So the "gimp" that you seem to be running must be some text file with a command to run the gimp. Check it out using more or cat to read the file.