unusual question about PATH variable

[championsleeper]

hi,

i've completed a certfication exam for linux recently. there was one
question i could not answer and have had trouble finding an answer
for. here's the scenario:

"A binary cannot be found in a directory which is listed in your PATH
variable (but may be in one of the directories listed in PATH).
Running the command:
____ PATH allowable
fixes the problem. What should the expression be?"

Afraid this is all I could remember and I could not take my notes out
of the exam.

Any guidance appreciated. Doing my head in .......

[Art Werschulz]

Hi.

Post by championsleeper
"A binary cannot be found in a directory which is listed in your PATH
variable (but may be in one of the directories listed in PATH).
____ PATH allowable
fixes the problem. What should the expression be?"

If I'm understanding the question properly, the answer should be "export".

[Moe Trin]

Post by championsleeper
i've completed a certfication exam for linux recently. there was one
question i could not answer and have had trouble finding an answer for.

Did you take classes for this exam? Asking the instructor is likely to
be the best way.

Post by championsleeper
"A binary cannot be found in a directory which is listed in your PATH
variable (but may be in one of the directories listed in PATH).

Doesn't make sense. The 'which' command will search your path for files,
whether they be executable or not - they just have to be in your path.

Post by championsleeper
____ PATH allowable
fixes the problem. What should the expression be?"

On your system, run the following commands:

zgrep allowable /usr/share/man/*/*
zgrep allowable /usr/share/info/*

and see if anything turns up. There's nothing obvious here. Another problem
is the word PATH - that's normally an environmental variable.

Post by championsleeper
Afraid this is all I could remember and I could not take my notes out
of the exam.

I'm afraid the question doesn't sound correct. The 'which' command (often
just an alias for 'type -path') will find stuff that is in your path. Try
this (assumes you have a ~/bin directory, and that this is in your path):

[compton ~]$ which foo
[compton ~]$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/ibuprofin/bin
[compton ~]$ ls bin/foo
[compton ~]$ > bin/foo
[compton ~]$ which foo
/home/ibuprofin/foo
[compton ~]$ ls bin/foo
bin/foo
[compton ~]$

and obviously, that isn't even an executable.

Post by championsleeper
Any guidance appreciated. Doing my head in .......

[compton ~]$ whatis which whereis
which (1) - show full path of commands
whereis (1) - locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command
[compton ~]$

The difference? 'which' searches your PATH, while 'whereis' searches through
a number of directories where executables might live (but not through the
~/bin/ if it exists).

Old guy