Fedora Core 2

[greyghost]

I am using fedora Core 2 on my laptop and tried installing samba off of the disks, but I cannot figure out where linux installs programs to - what is the linux version of program files in windows ?? Does Linux use *.exe files to open applications or some other type of file?

 

[tim_m]

linux does not rely on file extensions in the same way that windows does. a program can be named anything but has to "be executable". a program is executable if it has the appropriate chmod setting. if you `ls -l` from a command prompt, on the left will be a column whose contents could be like 'drwxrwxrwx' or '-rwxr-xr-x' or '-rw-r-----'. the first one, d, indicates it's a directory, otherwise a file. also, often executable files' names are colored green. the first group of rwx signifies permissions of the owner of the file, r for read, w for write, and x for executable. the second grouping is for the group, 3rd for everyone else. basically, you have to have permission to execute the file, if you're the owner you need to have an x in the first grouping, if you're in the group of the file then you need x in the second grouping, if you're someone else, you need the x in the 3rd grouping.

i don't think i'm explaining this too well. search for a linux permissions tutorial.

the filesystem is a bit different than in windows. a program could be in /bin, /usr/bin, or any number of places.

what specifically are you trying to figure out? that will be easier to answer

 

[XOR != OR]

Trying to explain linux permissions in anything less than a chapter is going to leave out quite a bit. Best just to jump in and play with it.

what specifically are you trying to figure out? that will be easier to answer

 

[greyghost]

I really appreciate your time in telling me all that but I don't think I understood a word you said (tim)

*linux permissions* gives me a whole new thing to google; thank you for that



Amended topic: Can someone tell me how to use RPM's?

 

[XOR != OR]

Amended topic: Can someone tell me how to use RPM's?

Yeah, don't, if you can get away with it. At least, not directly. Use yum, it comes native with fc2, and if you can't find a software package, good chance you can find a repo that has it ( which is an entirely different subject altogether ).

If, as a last resort, you must use rpm, try these commands:

rpm -ivh somerpm.rpm - To install a package
rpm -e packageName - to remove a package
rpm -qa | grep <packagename> - see if <packagename> is installed, possibly to get the right name to remove it with.

These are just the basics, there are way too many different options to list here. Read the man pages. In fact, that's good advice period: Before you ask any questions about specific commands, read the man pages. People will ask you if you did anyways, and often the answer is right in front of you.

 

[arkamw]

First, check out the Red Hat website and look and support -> documentation -> Red Hat linux -> Getting Started Guide. It's long, but it will explain things a lot better that can be explained easily here (I know because this is where I started yesterday). Go through all the guides that are there and be playing around with Linux at the same time to get used to the commands and feel.

I think that you can always man rpm from a shell prompt but I haven't tried it yet. What I was able to do was login as user, navigate to the file dierctory, then type "rpm -ivh filename" (without the quotes) and the thing would install or tell me about a dependent it needed. Finding it was a little more difficult after that, but it worked.

Check Appendix D of the above Guide to see a typical list of directories and what is in them to get a better feel for what's going on.

I am a complete Linux newbie myself, so I am learning this as I go.

Cheers.

edit: XOR beat me to it, and I learned something in the process.

 

[tim_m]

in case you don't know how to read the manual page, it's `man <command>`, like `man rpm`. most commands accept the --help switch as well, `rpm --help`