[LUAU] Windows shortcut equivalent in Linux

[Vikram Khurana]

Sorry I didn't explain my question well enough. I can't do a cd ~ in the
script, because I don't want to change the directory I'm in

I have a file called Parse.ui in the /home/xyz/Parse/Linux directory
Parse.ui is a Perl Tk application which runs by doing ./Parse.ui in the
Linux directory. When I run Parse.ui, it reads a parameter file called
xyz.dat in the /home/xyz/Parse directory(I can move this to the
/home/xyz/Parse/Linux directory if needed) . Now I want to run this
application from different directories say /home/data/trial1/abc

Anyway to do this?

-----Original Message-----
From: luau-bounces at lists.hosef.org [mailto:luau-bounces at lists.hosef.org] On
Behalf Of MonMotha
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 10:50 AM
To: Linux/Unix Advocates/Users Hawaiian community discussion list
Subject: Re: [LUAU] Windows shortcut equivalent in Linux

Vikram Khurana wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I want to run a program that resides in a particular directory, say
> /home/Parse
> When the program is run it reads some files in the /home directory using a
> relative path ../<file name>
> 
> I want to run this program from other directories without having to copy
the
> program & required files to those directories.
> 
> I have tried using symlink, but that does not read the files in /home
> I can't seem to figure out how to do this using an alias either.
> 
> In windows I create a shortcut & that runs from anywhere I place the
> shortcut. I essentially need the same functionality in Linux.
> 
> Can someone please tell me the best way to solve this.
> 
> Thanks,
> Vikram
> 

That's not a bug, that's a feature :)

Seriously, that's a feature.  In Unix, every application has it's own 
working directory which is whereever it is started from, unless the app 
changes that.  All relative paths are derrived from that working 
directory.  Normally this is a good thing, but in your case, I guess 
it's not.

 From the sound of it, this "Parse" is a shell script.  The quick fix is 
to place a "cd ~" at the top to make it's current working directory your 
home directory (be aware that if other people run it, it will use THEIR 
home directory, not yours).  The proper way is to use absolute paths any 
time you want to reference a file absolutely.

Windows actually has this convention as well, though I think there may 
be an option in the "shortcut" properties to set the working directory 
for these (broken) applications.

--MonMotha
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