paths and permissions

[Angela Swyers_1]

I am moving an application to a new server. We had a bunch of shell scripts that were in the /usr/bin directory. I would like to keep all of these is a custom directory so that when I'm moving stuff to another server I don't have to go looking for them. I have this new directory in my users path and they have full rights to use it. Yet, when I try to run this program it can't find it. Any ideas?

[Steven E. Protter]

We use /usr/contrib/bin

You will need to add that to user path in .profile or /etc/profile

SEP

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

Hi,

I would first check the PATH before running the command.

$echo $PATH

Make sure the directory appears in path. Then ensure they could be able to actually do a listing of it

$ll /usr/custom/bin/command

I called it as /usr/custom/bin.

-Sri

[Abdul Rahiman]

Try running whence or which against your script to see if it's finding the script.

eg: # whence myscript.sh

If it doens't find it there may be issues with the $PATH variable.

[Angela Swyers_1]

whence finds it but whereis doesn't?

[Patrick Wallek]

What error do you get when you try to run these scripts? Are the permissions on the scripts themselves correct?

[Jeroen Peereboom]

Angela,

- login as the user
A start the program by typing its full name (with leading /)
B start the program by typing just its name

A: should work.
B: What is the error message?

Do an 'echo $PATH' and check that you didn't make a typo (colon / semicolon).

If you want the directory in $PATH for all users, you can add it to the file /etc/PATH.

Do the old server and new server have the same OS? If not, is the first line of the scripts pointing to a correct shell?

JP.

[Abdul Rahiman]

How about the permission of the new directory itself ?
Is it 755 or not ?

If not change it to 755 and see if the program runs or not with the script anme.

[Angela Swyers_1]

It is 755. If I make a logical link to /usr/bin it seems to work just fine. This script is called from another so there must be something that is replacing the PATH in some way.

[Jeroen Peereboom]

Angela,
you must check the calling script. Maybe the PATH is changed within the calling script, or the script is called with its full name?

JP

[Abdul Rahiman]

Well, if the script is called from some other script, you may want to make sure that those scripts don't modify your PATH.
Insert a echo $PATH command just in front of the script name in the other script and see what it tells you.

Just as a side note, if the script is called by another script or via cron, you must set the PATH separately or add it to the existing PATH variable.

export PATH=${PATH}:/your/newdir

HTH,
Abdul.