*BSD News Article 81698


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From: feisal@tstt.net.tt (Feisal Mohammed)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Netscape install
Date: 28 Oct 1996 11:45:32 GMT
Organization: University of the West Indies
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <slrn5797h4.5n.feisal@lancelot.valsayn.tt>
References: <551dtl$fnc@library.airnews.net>
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In article <551dtl$fnc@library.airnews.net>, Royce Tidwell wrote:
>
>I'm fairly new to fbsd, and don't really understand how to install
>software, I guess.  After dialing into my isp, and dloading
>netscape(v30) unzipping and tarring, I get several files.  The release
>notes say something about an executable.  I have no .exe file,
>although I'm sure they were refering to the netscape file.  When I try
>to run netscape from x, i get bad command or filename.
>
>So the question is, after dloading and unzipping, how do you install?
>
>Thanks for the help,
>
>Royce Tidwell
>

OK, Unix executable files do not end in .exe, it's the permissions on
the files that say whether it's executable or not, in fact it is possible
to make a text file executable, of course whether it will run or not
depends on what is in the file.
An easy way to tell is to do "ls -F" on the files the executables
will have a "*" appended to the end on the file name. Assuming you got the
correct version of Netscape the first thing to do is read the README file,
it's there for a reason :) Most of the stuff doesn't apply except the
applet support and the BSD/386 section for nls support. Then try "./netscape"
it should start up even without doing the stuff described in the README.

Most newbies make the common mistake of assuming that if a file is
in their current directory then it will be executed, that's a DOSism.
Under UNIX you have to make it explicit either by including "." in your
PATH or putting it on the command line.

-Feisal
-- 
Feisal Mohammed <feisal@tstt.net.tt>   Ph: 1-809-662-2002 x3171
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of the West Indies.