WYNTK: UNIX System Admininistrator

Quick Reference of troubleshooting techniques

Information to find and keep

What directories should be in my search path? ______

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What value should MANPATH be set to for our

system?_____________________________________

What shell do I use?____________________________

What is the name of my setup file? ________________

What terminal type do I use?_____________________

What terminal type do I use when I log in from home?

____________________________________________

Command not found

1. Check that you typed the name of the command correctly. Did you remember a space between the command name and options? Mistake an O for a 0 or l for a 1? Make any needed substitutions, such as a file name for “filename”? Forget something (like a capital letter) or add something (like a command-line prompt such as % or $) that you don’t need to type?

2. Check that the command is installed on the system with whereis; e.g., to see the full pathname of the who command, type:

   % whereis who

3. As a one-time fix, run the program with its full pathname; for example, if the program’s full pathname is /usr/bin/who, type:

    % /usr/bin/who

4. For a permanent fix, use a text editor to add the command’s directory to the end of your search path.

Command doesn’t act like you expect

1. See if there are two versions of the command with whereis:

   % whereis ls
   ls: /usr/5bin/ls /usr/bin/ls

2. Check which version of the command you are running:

   % which ls
   /usr/bin/ls

3. Either set ...