A REAL NEWBIE QUESTION 1699

vin

Open a terminal and type:

echo $PATH

That will give you all possible paths where an executable can be installed. That's more or less the "C:-program files" of Linux.

Next, before to install an RPM, you can look what's in it:

rpm -qpl filename.rpm

Or better:

rpm -qpl filename.rpm less

The piping through 'less' is here because 'rpm' will spout the list without giving you the time to read.

The person line:

rpm -qpl filename.rpm grep -e `echo"$PATH-" sed 's-:-----g'`

Just cut'n'paste into your terminal. (Select here then click with the middle button in the terminal. Just don't forget to change the filename.)

This line will list only the files that will be installed in one of the paths of your $PATH. If you get no answer that's because no executables are accessible by a regular user. Just become root (a.k.a super-user):

su

And restart from the beginning.

Just a line to test if the file you want to work with is where you are:

ls *.rpm

If it's not here:

cdwhere-is-that-file

(That's the same command than with DOS-Windows if I remember correctly.)

And a trick to make you life easy: You don't need to type the whole name of the file. Just the first letters then TAB. (Once if you're lucky. Twice if several files begin with the same letters. In that case, just type more letters then TAB again.)

Last thing. Once the RPM is within your reach in the terminal:

rpm --test -Uvh filename.rpm

That will tell you if you can install without problem. If yes:

rpm -Uvh filename.rpm

You must absolutely be root for this last one.

Well, that should be enough to get you started. Just come back if you have more questions.

-- ================== Remi Villatel ==================