UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,

I have a problem running application in BSD in os x.

I want to run a app called "iCab", so i type "./iCab"...it then gave me a load of "A^@A^@A^@A^@A^@A^@A^@A^@..."

OS X is BSD, so this should mean that i can be able to use the terminal to launch stuff; right?

and also, how can i tell if a file is exectable (since it doesn't have extension like Windows does)?

thanks

P.S. I reading these tutor from FreeBSD' s website
and also there's lots of unix commands not present in os X

iCab is a fully OS X-compliant application, including the Aqua interface. Just double-click on its icon and it will run; dragging a the application program to the Dock is the best way to keep it handy. Regarding BSD programs ("commands") not present in OS X: you're exactly right, although you'll find that many GUI programs (NetInfo, for one) provide the same functionality in easier to use configurations. Of course, you can always install the command line tools if you so choose.

Usually, GUI-based Aqua applications live in directories called '<name-of-the-app>.app'. To run these from the command line just type:

open name-of-the-app

in the directory where you see the '.app' folder.


Of course you have to be at the console to actually see the results, but in any case the app will open and run.


Console commands can be run from anywhere as they have no Aqua GUI. To run them just type:

./name-of-the-app

To know which are executable, do a 'ls -F' and check out the files that have '*' appended to the names.



dani++