CentOS - Aug 2005 - What's the Linux equivelant of an exe file?

This is one of those questions that seems to be soo obvious to people 
that no one feels the need to have an explanation anywhere. I've been 
looking around the net for ages, and I can't figure out what, on Linux, 
is actually a program.

I've downloaded OpenOffice 1.9 Beta, and would like to run it. I go to 
the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/ directory and... then what? What 
do I run to start the thing? I've hunted around with ls, and I thought 
bin files were the thing, but they don't seem to run.

I'm trying to run the program, associate the program with .ods files, 
and get some icons in my task bar. But I can't do any of those if I 
don't know what is actually the program.

Help?

Dave

On 8/4/05, Dave Gutteridge <dave at tokyocomedy.com>
wrote:
> 
> This is one of those questions that seems to be soo obvious to people
> that no one feels the need to have an explanation anywhere. I've been
> looking around the net for ages, and I can't figure out what, on Linux,
> is actually a program.
> 
> I've downloaded OpenOffice 1.9 Beta, and would like to run it. I go to
> the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/ directory and... then what? What
> do I run to start the thing? I've hunted around with ls, and I thought
> bin files were the thing, but they don't seem to run.
> 
> I'm trying to run the program, associate the program with .ods files,
> and get some icons in my task bar. But I can't do any of those if I
> don't know what is actually the program.
> 
use ls -al and look for an x in the permissions (for eXecutable)

-- 
Leonard Isham, CISSP 
Ostendo non ostento.

Dave Gutteridge wrote:
> 
> This is one of those questions that seems to be soo obvious to people 
> that no one feels the need to have an explanation anywhere. I've been 
> looking around the net for ages, and I can't figure out what, on Linux,
> is actually a program.
file '/path/to/file' will tell you. But you still need to give execute 
permissions.
> 
> I've downloaded OpenOffice 1.9 Beta, and would like to run it. I go to 
> the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/ directory and... then what? What 
> do I run to start the thing? I've hunted around with ls, and I thought 
> bin files were the thing, but they don't seem to run.
use ls -l

Files with a 'x' in the permissions are executable.

oowrite or something like that for word processing.

Dave Gutteridge <dave at tokyocomedy.com> wrote:
> This is one of those questions that seems to be soo obvious
> to people that no one feels the need to have an explanation
> anywhere.
This is more of the "Windows deprogramming" I have probably
mentioned before.  Linux is a UNIX-like system, so there is a
mindshift.

It might help you if you get a basic UNIX/Linux book and read
the first few chapters.  I've been meaning to look at my
local bookstore and find a good one, or even write a free one
that is not too big, but goes over everything you should know
to start.
> I've been looking around the net for ages, and I can't
> figure out what, on Linux, is actually a program.
An "executable" in UNIX/Linux can be anything.

The difference in UNIX/Linux is that you must _explicitly_
mark in the filesystem itself that a file is "executable."
We don't trust our programs to tell us, as that is why
Windows has so many trojan horses (as well as the fact
that before Outlook 11 aka 2003, it used to trust and blindly
send off any extension to the Windows executive).
> I've downloaded OpenOffice 1.9 Beta, and would like to run
> it. I go to the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/
> directory and...  then what? What do I run to start the
> thing? I've hunted around with ls, and I thought 
> bin files were the thing, but they don't seem to run.
chmod u+x openoffice*.bin

[ Change modal on openoffice*.bin files to execute for the
user (owner) ]

Now you can execute it:  

  ./openoffice-(whatever).bin

Note that unlike Windows, UNIX/Linux systems do not
automatically search the current directory for an executable.
 That's why you must use the "./" in front of an executable
if it is in the current directory.  Either that, or add the
current directory to your path (e.g., PATH=/usr/bin:.:/bin).
> I'm trying to run the program, associate the program with
> .ods files, and get some icons in my task bar. But I can't
> do any of those if I don't know what is actually the
> program.
The OpenOffice.org installer should setup file associations
in GNOME and KDE.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                | Sent from Yahoo Mail
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org     |  (please excuse any
http://thebs413.blogspot.com/ |   missing headers)

On 8/4/05, Dave Gutteridge <dave at tokyocomedy.com>
wrote:
> 
> This is one of those questions that seems to be soo obvious to people
> that no one feels the need to have an explanation anywhere. I've been
> looking around the net for ages, and I can't figure out what, on Linux,
> is actually a program.
> 
> I've downloaded OpenOffice 1.9 Beta, and would like to run it. I go to
> the /opt/openoffice.org1.9.122/program/ directory and... then what? What
> do I run to start the thing? I've hunted around with ls, and I thought
> bin files were the thing, but they don't seem to run.
> 
> I'm trying to run the program, associate the program with .ods files,
> and get some icons in my task bar. But I can't do any of those if I
> don't know what is actually the program.
> 
> Help?
> 
> Dave

Dave, there is an article on the Internet that you must read.
Here is the link:

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm



-- 
"No-one dies a virgin. Life screws everyone."