Using Red Hat Linux

Using Red Hat Linux

E.7 Using Red Hat Linux

E.7.1 I can't run any of the programs I compile because I get a "command not found" error message. I see the command in the directory, but it doesn't run.

The problem is that, according to the computer shell, the program isn't there. The computer shell (the part of the OS that runs your commands) finds programs using a very strict path setting that figures out where items are. If you type the following, you will see what your PATH variable is set to:

echo $PATH

One of the items that should not be there is the current working directory [cwd] (sometimes called the present working directory) which is called . in Unix and DOS terms. So to execute commands in the cwd, you need to either add the directory to your path, or type something like the following:

./command

E.7.2 How come I don't see colors when I run ls?

In order to allow the color option, you must edit .bashrc. This line must be placed in the file:

alias ls='ls --color=auto'