[SLUG] Another installation question

[Gavin Baker]

On Mon, 2004-11-08 at 04:01 -0500, john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
> > <john at johnallsopp.co.uk> wrote:
> >> I want to download the Java development kit which is supplied as a
> >> file la-de-da-rpm.bin.
> >>
> >> How do I install that?

> > Maybe a binary?  Try executing it (make sure it has the execute bit
> > set),
> >
> > ./la-de-da-rpm.bin
> >

> Thanks yes that worked. It's not the kind of thing you stumble across
> that, is it? Although I do recall being told it before in uni days.

Linux, for the most part doesn't give a flying foo about filename
extensions. I can rename a .jpg to .bin if I want.. doesn't change it's
filetype though, it's still a jpg. 

Use "file" to find out what a file really is

gav at toro gav $ file windows.dll
windows.dll: XML document text

> Care to explain what it means? ./ I mean. What are we actually asking
> it  to do?

Commands you type are searched for in the directories listed in $PATH.
Try "echo $PATH". If you current directory isn't in $PATH, then you have
to give the absolute pathname to it. ie, /home/fred/mycommand. Or if
your in /home/fred/, just ./mycommand  (. means here, .. means the
directory above this one). ./mycommand and ../mycommand are relative to
where you currently are in the filesystem of course, so they are
relative paths.

So .bin could be anything at all. Chances are your .bin has been
compressed with makeself. Kinda like a compressed archive that has the
uncompressor embedded. If you look at the first line of the file it will
probably have a bangline to make it run with a shell, and perform the
uncompressing magic.

Regards,
Gav