[lug] Idea for a new tutorial....maybe???

[John Starkey]

Damn you guys are quick. You and Jeff both. 

There's a lot of info here. Thanks. ENV wasn't exactly what I was thinking
it was but it's along the same lines. Kinda like setting up the desktop,
but the shell.

What exactly is the PATH? It determines where the shell looks for the
explanations of what you type, so it can pass that to the kernel????

I'm creating this database program for my fiance that will be customized
for her field (pianist). It's called 'practice'. How would I put that in
her path so that she can type in the name 'practice' and it opens the
program.

And what did you mean by "forking a process". I use 'ps' a lot I know what
a process is and how to determine parent/child and initd, etc. But how is
a process created (ie, the forking)? 

TIA,

John

On Sat, 8 Apr 2000, PC Drew wrote:

> Before I go into environment variables, I'll take a step back and give
> a little background.
> 
> What's a shell?  (i.e. sh, ksh, bash, tcsh, csh, etc.)
> A shell is a program that lives in user-land (it's built in to the
> system) and gives the user a "nice" interface to the kernel.  The
> shell provides the most basic feature: you can type in the location of a
> program and it forks off a process, then executes that program.
> 
> Along with that feature, it provides some niceties.  One of those
> things are environment variables.  When you log in to a system, an
> environment get's created for you.  This environment gets created
> through a number of configuration files: .*rc, .login, .profile, and
> the system defaults.  You can think of an environment in UNIX as being
> similar to earth's environment (okay, it's a stretch, but bare with
> me...).  If you change one thing in the environment, it may or may not
> effect the rest of the environment.  If you change the color of the
> sky, it might not matter.  If you take the oxygen out of the air, then
> when people try to breath, they won't get the oxygen that they need
> and they'd die.  If they didn't try to breath, then nothing would
> happen to them.
> 
> An environment variable in UNIX is similar.  If you change your path,
> it won't matter until you try to use it (i.e. try to run a program).
> When you do run a program, that instance of the program get's a copy
> of your environment.  This way, it can use your path or any other
> variable it needs.  To set an environment variable (in tcsh anyway),
> you use the command "setenv".  You can also have shell variables that
> are variables only for that instance of the shell.  These variables
> don't get passed to any programs.  When writing scripts, it's
> preferable to use shell variables.  Otherwise, use environment
> variables. To set shell variables, you use the command "set" instead
> of "setenv".
> 
> This is all well and good, but how do you save a certain environment
> variable?  Let's say you change your path to include "/usr/local/bin"
> by calling "setenv".  That's fine, until you exit your terminal
> window.  If you only wanted to temporarily add that to your path, then
> everything's dandy.  If you wanted to permanently change it, you
> should put that command into your .*rc file (i.e. .tcshrc for tcsh).
> 
> Like editors, shells are very controversial.  I personally like tcsh
> the best.  Lot's of sys admins like bash a lot.  Just like I think you
> should learn a little bit about vi, I think that everyone should learn
> about the "sh" shell.  That's the default root shell on systems like
> Solaris (usually denoted by the "#" at the prompt).  Also, most shell
> scripts are written in sh because it's installed on every machine!
> 
> That's all I have, if you've got more questions then feel free to post
> them!  Also, if I've said anything wrong, please correct me.
> 
> 
> --
> PC Drew
> 
> 
> Thus spake John Starkey on Saturday, April 08, 2000, 4:21:39 PM:
> 
> 
> JS> Not to flood the group right now. This is message 5 I think.
> 
> JS> But could someone put together an explanation of the "environment
> JS> variable". I keep hearing about setting up your environment.
> 
> JS> What's that all about. I assume it has a lot to do with the .*rc files.
> JS> And I have a feeling that I'm working with the variables all the time but
> JS> I don't really understand the term.
> 
> JS> Thanks.
> 
> JS> John
> 
> 
> 
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