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Sorry, I know its been asked before, but how do i add an executable to the command list for the command line?
Such that typing: my-application
will have the same effect as /home/user/path/my-application
I know i have to add a .Desktop (or was it a symlink?) file to a specific directory but i can't recall which one.
Please, can someone point in the right direction? I tried googling it and all i get are manuals for various commands
There is more than one way to skin this cat:
You can put a symlink to your binary in a directory that is already in your PATH (/usr/local/bin for example).
You can modify your PATH to include the directory with your binary in it. One way to do this is add the following to ~/.profile:
PATH="$PATH:/path/to/directory/"
export PATH
You could even add an alias: alias <commandName> </path/to/your/binary>. Add it to your .bashrc file to recreate the alias when you log in.
There are probably other ways I haven't though of as well.
$HOME/bin to their $PATH, as /usr/local/bin requires root privileges to modify. While this may not benefit the original questioner, it should serve to help anyone who may perchance run into this same issue on a system on which they do not have root access (such as a public shell server).
Sep 12, 2014 at 1:03
I like to use /usr/local/bin for my commands (or for links to them). That directory is usually in the PATH variable, which means that when you type a command the system looks there for it.
To create a link to the command:
ln -s /home/user/path/my-application /usr/local/bin/
Alternatively you can move the command to that path instead of linking. You need root permissions to do it anyway.
After that it should work.
