Shell Programming and Scripting

I have a script within my home folder and want to be able to execute it without using the sh command.

I know that if it was in ~/bin and executable I could do it just by typing the file name, but would rather keep it in the current file structure

I tried creating a soft link in ~/bin, thinking I could then use the name of the link to execute it but I'm still getting the error message "-bash: <linkname>: command not found"

What am I doing wrong?

There seems to be several issues:
1. does your script have a shebang at the top:

Code:

#!/bin/sh

2. is your script executable - i.e., did you run chmod +x myscript.sh

3. You need to add your home directory to your PATH variable, edit your .profile file
add this line.

Code:

export PATH=${PATH}:/home/jaloopa

You do not need a symbolic link to bin

1) yes it does
2) yes it is
3) my system doesn't save exported variables on logout, so I'd have to do this every time I logged in or add the code to the script. Surely there's a tidier way than that?

To point 3: If you set the PATH in your .profile as suggested, you wouldn't have to do anything when you log back in.

As to points 1 and 2: It's not sh you need to use to run the script, but the path to the script, which could be remedied as described in point 3.

Ah, gotcha. Somehow managed to miss that bit about editing the file. Thank you both, it works now.

(I think I've been using vi too much. Just went to press esc then :x to save and exit this response)

Great

You can never use vi too much