UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

It would be helpful if someone could help me out here. The problem I have been having is that I cannot run some commands which are valid - whenever I try to run the command I get the message "command not found". Now, if I run the same command as root it executes. These commands do not have to be run as root for it to be executed, for example, if I run 'sysdef', 'prtconf' and even 'ifconfig' command I get the command not found message.

How can I get around this issue this issue?

I am running an Solaris 10 on an x86 architecture.

Rgds.

Root has things in its path that the normal user doesn't. So, as root, if you can run a program named sysdef, run this command: which sysdef

The response will be something like: /sbin/sysdef

If the application truly doesn't require root permissions, then you should be able to run it as a regular user by typing in the full path: /sbin/sysdef

If this works, you can alias the command: alias sysdef="/sbin/sysdef"

You should then be able to run it by just typing the name. If that works, you could consider adding that alias command to your ~/.bashrc (for bash -- research the proper location for other shells), for your convenience.

ShawnMilo

ShawnMilo, thanks for your input.

Under the normal user account I did the 'which sysdef' and I got the output 'no sysdef in /usr/bin /usr/openwin/bin /usr/ucb'. So I ran the same command as root and I got '/usr/bin/sysdef'. From my understanding of that it's is showing me that the sysdef files are located in the /usr/bin. What I attempted to do next was to create a soft link between the sysdef in the /usr/bin to the /usr/bin/local; I found out that the sysdef files are not in there. The command I used for that is "ln -s /usr/sbin/sysdef /usr/local/bin/sysdef". Had a look in the /usr/bin/local and the sysdef was there. Tried to run the sysdef command as the normal user and still got nothing 'command not found'. Have I attempted to go about this the wrong way. My knowledge of Unix is very rudimentary so if someone could point out where I am going wrong I would be more than grateful.

Rgds,
Everett

Hi,
Without using softlink you could as root get PATH values

Code:

# echo $PATH

then back to normal user, update your current PATH

Code:

$ export PATH=$PATH:_values_you_got_from_root

and if it works you could update your login profile as well...

Please re-read my last post. I wasn't talking about creating symlinks. Just add aliases to your environment in your .rc file, or see andryk's suggestion about modifying your path, which you can also add to your .rc file (.bashrc or similar).

I don't think it's a good idea to arbitrarily add symlinks into system directories, such as /usr/local/bin, but I could be wrong.

ShawnMilo

Thanks, I tried this method and it worked.

Thanks for helping out.