Add command to lauch a new application from terminal

Question

I've installed BlueGriffon on Ubuntu 13.04 x64bit. I've add it to Unity Launcher by creating a "bluegriffon.desktop" file. Now I want to launch bluegriffon directly from terminal; assuming that the prgram folder is on the path /home/username/programs/bluegriffon and assuming that the laucher's file name is bluegriffon, which code I have to add to .bashrc and .profile?

Note: I tried to add PATH to .profile, but it doesn't work.

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 01 '13 at 08:40

6

You can add symbolic link to /bin or /usr/local/bin for executable file. For example:

ln -s /home/username/programs/bluegriffon/EXECUTABLE.sh /usr/local/bin/bluegriffon

edited Oct 01 '13 at 08:40

Radu Rădeanu

169,590

answered Oct 01 '13 at 08:31

RedPenguin

61

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 01 '13 at 08:23

To launch it from the terminal by entering its name only (in this case 'bluergriffon') you will need the program's folder in your path. The path is set using the PATH environment variable and you can add the following to .profile to set it:

export PATH=$PATH:/home/username/programs/bluegriffon

This appends the new folder to the existing value of the PATH variable so you don't lose the existing contents.

The 'export' command makes the value of the environment variable available to subprocesses.

Hope that helps.

Remember the quotes around $PATH! :-) – Andrea Corbellini Oct 01 '13 at 08:43 — Andrea Corbellini, Oct 01 '13 at 08:43

Add command to lauch a new application from terminal

2 Answers2