Re: [ferret_users] ferret installation

[Ryo Furue <furue@xxxxxxxxxx>]

| Alternatively can I add the following at the very end of my .bashrc
| file,
| 
| PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin/ferret_paths
| export PATH

No.

| or in my .bash_profile file, where should I enter
| . $HOME/bin/ferret_paths

Yes.  Just try this on your command line:

   bash$ . $HOME/bin/ferret_paths

If you don't see any error message, then type:

   bash$ echo $PATH

Then you'll see that the Ferret directory is added
to your PATH environmental variable.

PATH is a list of directories.  When you type a command, such as

   bash$ someobscurecommand

the bash shell searches the directories in PATH one by one
for "someobscurecommand".  If it finds it, it executes it.
If it doesn't, it issues an error message:

   bash$ someobscurecommand
   bash: someobscurecommand: command not found

You remember you saw a similar error message for ferret?
That was because your PATH didn't include the Ferret
directory.

What ". $HOME/bin/ferret_paths" does is to execute the
contents of ferret_paths.  If you look at the contents of
ferret_paths, you'll find among other things that it adds
the Ferret directory to your PATH.

By the way, ferret_paths sets other environmental variables,
most of which are for Ferret (not for bash) to use.

| Does it matter if I use linux 32 bit or linux 64 bit. I tried both
| versions but it doesn't work. My machine is a (ppc64).

I don't think so.  All those machines are sufficiently similar;
they are all "Unix" in our context.

Hope this helps,
Ryo