You might also get away with making a symbolic link to the executable in a directory already listed in the path (like /usr/local/bin). With more complicated programs that like to have their particular "bin" directory in the PATH, or some other environmental condition preset, you can make a shell script in a PATH directory to set up the environment nicely and then execute the program. Or, if it is something truly self contained, you can plunk it right into a PATH directory. All of these options really depend on the program you want to run: acroread and tractorgen are two very different cases. If you don't know exactly what you are doing, modify the PATH variable as Andy and Chris suggest. Otherwise you could easily trap yourself in a world of hurt. >>> andyzb at ltiflex.com 02/28/01 04:25PM >>> Colin Kilbane wrote: > > How do you set your environment so that you can run a particular program > such as acrobat, from any current working directory? That depends on your shell. Most of the time, your shell is bash. Some people like tcsh. In anycase, you have to set the enviorment variable PATH. For bash, do something like export PATH=${PATH}:${HOME}/bin/:/opt/bin:/path/to/acrobat/reader This command sets PATH to be whatever PATH is currently set to plus /home/username/bin, /opt/bin, and /path/to/acrobat/reader A default user PATH should be set to something like /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games The superuser will generally have /sbin, /usr/sbin, and /usr/local/sbian as well. Type echo $PATH to see what you're path is currently set to. > In addition how can > you assign a particular file format a default reader? You have to edit your mime types. If your using GNOME, you can do this via the GNOME Control Center. KDE probally has similar functionality. -- Andy Zbikowski, Sys Admin | (WEB) http://www.ltiflex.com LTI Flexible Products, Inc. | (PH) 763-428-9119 (EX) 132 21801 Industrial Blvd | (FX) 763-428-9126 Rogers, MN 55374 | (PCS) 612-306-6055