UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Dear forum,

This is my first post here, nice to meet you all.

My question might be a beginner one, also it might have been answered before (I searched but found nothing).

I am a new Unix user. I am using a terminal to connect to Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-48-generic x86_64); please forgive me if I made any mistakes here, I'm only just starting to use something other than Windows.

I need to use a specific program which is installed twice in the terminal server: both in the main and in a local installation.

I need to run it from the local installation. Can you please help me as to how I will be able to do that?

Thank you in advance.

Best regards
Athina

Do you know in what path is the local installation stored?

Yes, I do.

My problem is the following: this program (gromacs) has various executable tools. Also, it has loads of files (forcefield files etc).

So what puzzles me is whether I will have to create an alias or something like that for each and every gromacs tool; another thing, since it also includes files that are not executables, how will I also specify that I want it to use these files whenever performing an action?

Or is there a "global" command that I write somewhere and then the whole program runs from the local install?

Thank you in advance.

You should try running the program like this:

Code:

/full/path/to/local/gromacs

It should automatically load correct files based on the installation directory.

Thank you

Another question: Is there a permanent solution to that? For example a way to set it as a default and not having to type the whole path everytime I want to use a gromacs tool? Is there a way to do specify that I want gromacs to run only locally and not from the main installation?

Thank you in advance

You can add the path to that installation to your user's .profile file. You can try doing it like this:

Code:

vi ~/.profile

Put following lines there:

Code:

PATH=/full/path/to/local:$PATH
export PATH

Save. Log out. Log in again. Run:

Code:

which gromacs

It should show "/full/path/to/local/gromacs".

Thank you - unfortunately it doesn't work. I will have to either figure out why, or run each executable separately specifying the path.