symbolic link to an executable

[muteXe]

Hello,
My mate has a program in his home folder that he runs by going to this folder and typing


./ProgramName



I can't seem to create a symbolic link on his desktop that works.
I've tried


ln -s /fullPathToExe /FullPathToWhereIwantLinkOnDesktop


Double-clicking this link doesn't run it for some reason.

I've even tried writing a little script on the desk top


#!/bin/bash
cd /PathToExe
./ProgramName


And that script doesnt do anything either. Or it appears not to do anything.

Any ideas? Someone at my work has suggested that the exe i'm trying to call is actually a script itself but i dont know how to check this.

Many thanks,

Tom

[AndyCee]

Perhaps try these:


$ file ProgramName
This will tell you what the program is (script, executable etc).

and


$ ls -l ProgramName
This will show you permissions on the file.

[muteXe]

file ProgramName

ProgramName: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, Version 1(SYSV), for GNU/Linux 2.2.5, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), not stripped

ls -l ProgramName


-rwxr-xr-x 1 tom tom 22686 2008-06-10 19:36 ProgramName

Thanks for the quick response btw.

[kpatz]

Try creating a launcher for the executable on the desktop instead of a symlink.

[muteXe]

tried that, same thing. I double click the launcher and nothing appears to happen.
unless i run it with:

./ProgramName

it doesn't want to run. Thank you for your reply tho.

[AndyCee]

I don't know why this is happening. Something else to throw in:

What happens if you double-click on the executable itself?

[aeiah]

have you set it to be an executible?

you should be able to set up an application launcher that does

/path/to/executible

if you trust the program you could put it in your /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin or wherever executible binaries go nowadays, set it as an executible and it'll be in your path. so you can launch it from the terminal with 'programname' or set it as a menu item or launcher by just calling it by 'programname' instead of specifying a path etc

[muteXe]

nothing :(

[muteXe]

have you set it to be an executible?

you should be able to set up an application launcher that does

/path/to/executible



yep i've tried that. I don't think moving the program anywhere is an option i'm afraid.


Looks like he'll have to cd to the folder and run manually :(

[AndyCee]

So - the program doesn't run when you double-click? It sounds like a terminal program. If it doesn't do anything when you double-click the actual program, it certainly won't change when you make a link to it.

I have to ask - What does it do? (when it works)

[muteXe]

It's a work colleague's program, so it's commercially sensitive i'm afraid. it's to do with air traffic control monitoring.

Not sure i know what a terminal program is. Can I create a link to this type of program or is that a no-no?

[bodhi.zazen]

Run the program from a link in the terminal :


~/Desktop/Link_to_Program

See if you get any error messages.

You may also want to :


sudo ln -s /home/user/program /usr/bin/program

[muteXe]

I'll tell him to try this tomorrow, he's gone home now.

thanks for all the replies,

Tom