After reading so many posts in this section, I'm convinced there are no other dummies here but me. You guys are light years ahead.

I have a great understanding of the Windows environment, but lost right now in some things pertaining to Unix. See, I'm a recent convert and put my website up on a unix box.

So I have secure telnet access and FTP. But I need to "execute" a "program" on the server and have absolutely no clue. I am trying to have the server run a messageboard script, which can easily be edited on my Desktop (windows). It's on the server and is used to update my database. It's written in Perl.

Bottom line, need to find out what would be similar command to "exec" in DOS (or RUN in basic) which was used to execute the compiled program name which followed. Is there a unix equivalent to "run" the database update script?

Thanks in advance.

Keith

There are no UNIX dummies, only those who have not been enlightened by it's power! Welcome.

To exectute a program in UNIX, it must first be executable. If the perl script is named msgbd.pl, from the directory where the script is stored, type
ls -l msgbd.pl

You should see something like;

-rwxr-xr-- 1 keith site32 703 Jan 11 12:14 msgbd.pl

What you are looking for is the x in rwxr--r--. This is the permission set associated with this file. It is split into three sets, owner, group, and everyone. This file had read, write and execute for the owner, read and execute for the group, and read for everyone. To make it exectutable for everyone, type;
chmod +x msgbd.pl

To execute the program, cd into the directory where the script is, and type;
./msgbd.pl

The ./ means this directory. It may be in your " search path" and not require the ./, but it may not.

[Edited by 98_1LE on 02-06-2001 at 10:28 AM]

OUTSTANDING!!1 That's just what I was looking for. I'm familiar with some of what you described, so the rest of your message was exactly what I needed. Thanks so much for the reply.

I'm really enjoying this "unix" thing. I moved from CP/M to Apples OS (1982) to DOS, then Windows and been there since 1990 or so. I hated Windows with a passion, but that's where all the apps were.

So now I have a good feeling about what I can do with Unix, just a TON of stuff to learn. Thanks again.

Keith