Executing Files in Terminal

[GaretJax]

There is an executable file that I can double-click to execute in the File Browser and it runs like expected.

But when I try to execute the file in the Terminal window it doesn't work because it says "command not found".

The file name is four words long separated by spaces. I tried enclosing the file name in double and single quotes. I even copied and pasted the file name so I know that I am not typing it incorrectly.

I assume this is a syntactical problem. Any help?

[blueridgedog]

You can attempt to run it with back slashes before the spaces:


./a\ file\ with\ spaces

[ecmatter]

Are you in the right directory?

[blueridgedog]

Note the "./" in front of my sample command implies you are "there" as in the directory that contains the file you want to run. Otherwise you could enter a full path as in /full/path/to/my/file\ with\ a\ space

[Volt9000]

In summary:

To reference a file with spaces in the name, you can enclose the file with quotes

"just like this"

or escape the space with a backslash

just\ like\ this


Note that Linux works differently than Windows. When you type a filename in the terminal, it doesn't always by default look in the current working directory; it looks in the path.

You can view the current path by typing:



echo $PATH


In order to access a file in the current directory, prepend a dot-slash to the front of the filename, thusly:

./file

It takes a bit of getting used to at first, especially when coming from a Windows background.

[Tibuda]

you can also use the interpreter executable like

sh myscript.sh
or

python myscript.py

[ecmatter]

Or, you can add the directory the file is in to your path by adding the following to your .bash_profile.


export PATH=$PATH:directory_name

[GaretJax]

Are you in the right directory?

Yes, I'm in the right directory.

[GaretJax]

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I took the direct approach to this and followed Volt9000's instructions. I typed ./"file with spaces" and it ran.

[Mornedhel]

You could have tried tab-completion.

Just type ./first_few_letters_to_your_executable, press TAB, and the name will be completed as far as the shell can guess. This includes special characters, so spaces are escaped with backslashes, etc.

[el.numbre]

In summary:

To reference a file with spaces in the name, you can enclose the file with quotes

"just like this"

or escape the space with a backslash

just\ like\ this


Note that Linux works differently than Windows. When you type a filename in the terminal, it doesn't always by default look in the current working directory; it looks in the path.

You can view the current path by typing:



echo $PATH


In order to access a file in the current directory, prepend a dot-slash to the front of the filename, thusly:

./file

It takes a bit of getting used to at first, especially when coming from a Windows background.
thanks that was really helpful :)