Thanks for all the help.  Now that I know the why behind
the ./ I have decided that I can live with putting ./ in front
of my perl scripts when I run them.  Eventually I will probably
be swearing at DOS for not running executables when I start
them with ./.

Now if I could just quit double-clicking icons in KDE and
launching two of everything.

Dana

----- Original Message -----
From: Ben Webb <brwebb@transmuto.com>
To: <kclug@kclug.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2000 9:57 AM
Subject: RE: kclug - Now for something completely different

> Here are comments and a better fix.
>
> >MS-DOS assumes that the current (or active) directory
> >is in the search path. Unix/Linux makes no assumption.
> >When you type ./ you are telling the system to look into
> >the current directory and run the executable there. MS-DOS
> >automatically appends . to your search path. As to changing
> >the behaviour of Linux/Unix, I cannot help other than to offer
>
> All true, and well stated.
>
>
> >this relatively lame solution... add all your directories that
> >have your executables to your path. This could
> >reduce system performance and could cause you to run
> >executables with the same filename from other directories
> >if those other directoires appear in the path statement
> >before the current directory. Maybe someone else has
> >a fix for this...
>
> Actually, you can just put the "." in your path, as in:
> $ export PATH=$PATH:.
>
> This isn't generally risky except when running as root - something that
should only be done when absolutely necessary.
>
> More specifically for you situation, Dana, go to the command line and
start a vi session to edit your .bashrc
>
> $ vi .bashrc
>
> Hunt around and see if you see a line something like (this will not be it
exactly):
> export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X1186/bin:/usr/games/bin
>
> If you do, stick a ":." on the end of it (no quotes, of course). If you
don't, put this on the very last line:
> export PATH=$PATH:.
> Save it, then source the file by entering
> . .bashrc
>
> You should be fixed forever.
>
> ***********IMPORTANT NOTE*******************
> Only do this if you are NOT running as root. If you are logging in as
root, ignore everything I have told you and create an account!  This will
probably fix your problem, and it is by far best practice.  You should NEVER
log in as root unless you are doing something that makes it necessary.
>
> Benjamin R. Webb
>
>
>
>