FPATH and Linux

[Dave Burton_5]

On HP-UX servers, I set my FPATH, type the name of a function file in that FPATH and all the functions in the file are loaded into my shell ready to make my life easier.

How do I achieve the same thing on Linux? If it makes a difference, I'm using RedHat, various versions.

Cheers
Dave

[Steven E. Protter]

I don't set FPATH on HP-UX. I set up my function library in /usr/contrib/bin and make sure its on the PATH.

That will probably work for you.

You can try setting the variable and setting it up line HP-UX. Its a posix shell, so it might work exactly the same way.

Set it in .profile or /etc/profile

And, I would not mind seeing how you do it in HP-UX. Sounds like a neat sysadmin enhancement.

SEP

[Dave Burton_5]

Steven,

It turns out the solution on Linux is just as on HP-UX. It was failing consistently when I tried before, but works fine when I try today. My shell must have been broken, and it never occurred to me to start a new one.

My approach is nothing special:

export FPATH=/home/daveb
Create a file called funcs in /home/daveb:
function funcs
{
sleep 0
}

function dothis
{
commands
}

function dothat
{
commands
}

etc

Then when I start a new shell, I just type funcs and I can use all these functions from the command line. (I could stick this in a startup file, but we share IDs here, and other people would get confused if they accidentally invoked one of my functions.)

Cheers
Dave