[techtalk] upgrading to Netscape 4.7

[jenn at simegen.com]

JoAnn Elliott wrote:


> well, acutally
> used the ./ns-install as the instructions did not tell me to do a ./ before
> it, but "just this girl" said to use that and it worked. 

Ok. For the budding backyard mechanics:

./something

means 'in this directory, run the file something'.

Why is this necessary?

In your shell (I'm hoping you know what a shell is. Quote this to the list 
and say 'I don't!' if you don't. Actually, if you don't understand any of 
this explanation, quote it back to the list and ask!)

In your shell, you have environment variables. These set all kinds of 
things the system needs to know about how you want your system to run.
One of them is the 'path'. This is basically 'where do I look for programs'.

In most user shells, the path includes "./" (remove the quotes). This 
is the local directory - wherever you happen to be at the time.

The root shell DOES NOT include "./". Very deliberately.

Why?

Because you /don't/ want to be in some smart-aleck user's directory,
run 'cd' or some other innocuous process, and have a program run that 
sets - say  - resets root's password to something the user knows then
runs cd with your argument.

Which hasn't happened to me - but is just something I thought of off 
the top of my head. :)

So if you're root, you have to /explicitly/ say 'yes I really want
to run this program that happens to be in this directory'.

Other users are presumed to not control anything vital, and to be 
unlikely to be hanging around in someone else's directories. :)




Jenn V.
-- 
  Humans are the only species to feed and house entirely separate species 
     for no reason other than the pleasure of their company. Why?

jenn at simegen.com        Jenn Vesperman        http://www.simegen.com/~jenn/

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