I am learning how to compile using your CompilingEasyHowTo guide. But as soon as I run the command shown below in the terminal, it shows the following error:
tejas@tejas-AU909AA-ACJ-CQ3120IX:~$ sudo chown $tejas /usr/local/src
chown: missing operand after ‘/usr/local/src’
Any idea how to overcome this problem?
You don't need to replace $USER by your own session login name (tejas) as this variable already contains "tejas".
So the right command to use is:
sudo chown $USER /usr/local/src
The variables $ENV, $LOGNAME, $MAIL, $TERM, $USER, and $USERNAME are not Bash builtins. These are, however, often set as environmental variables in one of the Bash or login startup files.
While you don't have to manually substitute your username for $USER, you can if you like. You just have to put it in place of the whole "word" $USER, not just USER. That is, leave off the $ in what you write:
sudo chown tejas /usr/local/src
This is because $ before a "name" signifies it is the name of a variable and that the variable should be dereferenced--that is, replaced by the value stored in it. USER is an environment variable that holds your username.
In contrast, tejas is (probably) not defined (in the sense of being a variable that has been assigned some value). In a shell, a variable that is not defined is treated, in most ways, like it is empty--i.e., holding the empty (i.e., zero-length) string of text. So $tejas is replaced by nothing and the command that actually gets run is sudo chown /usr/local/src, which cannot work.
