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NikWhit

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Running a Unix app

Hi,
   I need to run a Unix application which I've downloaded from the web. It's a program called Lyx, a graphical editor for LateX documents. I've downloaded a file called LYX-CURR.GZ, and have unzipped it with GZIP. This gives me the file LYX-CURR. Does anyone know how I'd run this? If I just type the name LYX-CURR in, it says access denied. What should I do?
Thanks in advance, Nik
(PS) I know very little about Unix, so please try and be as simple as possible!
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d003303

- UNIX is case sensitive, so LYX-CURR and lyx-curr are two different files
- UNIX consoles have two different '-' keys. One at the keypad, one at the keyboard.
- try to run it with ./(filename) because maybe your administrator denied the working directory as an executable path
- look at the file permissions with ls -l.

 NikWhit, there are several things that you have to check before trying to run this application. The first thing about programs that you take of the net is their format. I take it from what you write that this file what in binary executable format (it is very common to find source file versions on the net, and then you need to open them AND compile them - it is easier for the distributors to give a version for many machine architectures this way). You also need to make sure that this file was compiled for your machine type. If all these are correct, what you need to do is what you did (that is download, open) and then you need to make sure that it has running permissions. Use:
chmod +x ./LYX-CURR
Then you should be able to run it using:
./LYX-CURR
As mentioned above, take care for the case as unix is case sensitive.

Regards, G
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ASKER

Hi, guys.
    I've made it executable, now, but when I run it, it says says : 'syntax error : newline or ; expected line 2. Does this mean that the file is corrupt or something?

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jhance

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