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Running a program

To run a program it is generally sufficient to type its file name. Going back to our home directory and the to the program directory, we find three files, one of which is annotated by a '*'. This usually means a file is a program. In contrast to the other files it has an x in its access permissions. This stands for eXecutable. We can run it by typing f and return.

$cd ~
$cd programs/
$ls -F
d   e   f*
$ls -Fl
total 1
-rw-------   1 markst   staff           0 Jan 21 17:10 d
-rw-------   1 markst   staff           0 Jan 21 17:10 e
-rwx------   1 markst   staff           9 Jan 26 20:47 f*
$f

The program will now run and do whatever it does. After it has finished the user will be returned to the prompt. It is useful to know that CTRL-Cgif will usually abort a program.



Mark O. Stitson
Wed Sep 25 10:45:32 BST 1996