Repos / hi.imnhan.com / 752148b7e2
commit 752148b7e2cdd0255527d8795b9225e170c9a13b
Author: nhanb <thanhnhan483@gmail.com>
Date: Sat Sep 7 00:06:02 2013 +0700
programs post draft
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+Title: Installing programs in Ubuntu
+Date: 2013-09-06 21:03
+Category: tutorials
+Tags: ubuntu, linux
+Summary: Or the story of runtime paths, executables, packages and package managers.
+status: draft
+
+This article will not only explain how to install stuff, but it will (hopefully) also give readers
+a better understanding about Linux's structure for storing and executing programs, ultimately
+appreciate the usefulness of package managers in general.
+
+## Executables
+
+Let's start with something simple. Fire up your favorite text editor and create a file called
+`itc.sh` with the following content:
+
+ :::bash
+ #!/bin/bash
+
+ notify-send "Hello world!"
+
+Let's say I put it at the desktop. Now open up a terminal, go to the Desktop directory and make
+our itc file executable. In case you're new, here are the commands:
+
+ :::bash
+ cd /home/your_username/Desktop
+ chmod +x itc.sh
+
+**Protip**: for the first command you can also type `cd ~/Desktop`, because `~` is the shorthand for
+your home directory (`/home/username`)
+
+With the `chmod` command, we made it possible to run our little script by typing its full path:
+
+ :::bash
+ ~/Desktop/itc.sh
+
+Another shorthand to make your life easier: `.` stands for "current directory", meaning if you are
+currently in the `~/Desktop` directory, you can run the script by simply typing:
+
+ :::bash
+ ./itc.sh
+
+Either way, a notification saying "Hello world!" should pop up. This is a program in its
+simplest form: an executable file. In this particular example it is a Bash script, but it's not
+limited to that. It can be a Python or Ruby script, or a compiled binary file. The file extension
+isn't even needed. You can rename it to simply `itc` and it should run just fine.
+
+> In order to run a file, you need to make it executable. This can be done with the `chmod` command
+> or via the GUI [using Nautilus's **Properties** dialog][1].
+
+## Path
+
+So we've created a program that shows a useless message, good job! However, every time we call
+it, we need to specify the whole address to the file: `~/Desktop/itc` is probably not a very cool
+looking command. In order to make it possible to simply run `itc`, you need to move it to the
+`/usr/bin/` directory. This requires root permission so we'll need `sudo` too:
+
+ :::bash
+ sudo mv ~/Desktop/itc /usr/bin/itc
+
+We can now run our program by simply typing `itc`. You guessed it: every executable file put in
+this directory will be available as a command. There are other directories like this too. You can
+see a whole list of such directories by typing `echo $PATH` to your terminal.
+
+> To make an executable file available as a command, shove it into a directory that's included in
+> **$PATH**
+
+## Packages
+
+Unfortunately, most programs have a lot of files instead of one, and they are scattered to many
+different folders. Let's have a look at the files of `wget` - the downloader that's included in
+every major Linux distribution:
+
+
+
+It's not that the developers chose to annoy us by scattering them all over the place. It's simply
+complying to Linux structure: executable files go to **/usr/bin**, man pages (user manuals that
+show up when you type `man wget`) go to **/usr/share/man**, and so on. For more complex programs,
+the number of files alone is terrifying, which makes installing and remove the program a nightmare.
+
+On another note, almost every Linux program depends on one or many other programs. This is
+because of the UNIX philosophy that encourages writing each program to do one thing, and do it
+well. The goal is to make each program easier to implement and maintain as well as to avoid
+duplicate work. For example, program A may provide a functionality that both programs B and C
+need. Otherwise, B and C developers both have to write code for one same functionality. In this
+case, A is called a **dependency** of B and C. However, this introduces a bunch of problems:
+
+- We need to install A before installing B
+- We should know not to install A again when we install C
+- We must be careful not to remove A if we are still using B or C
+- What if B and C require different versions of A?
+- I can go on...
+
+This is where packages jump in. A package is basically the whole set of files of a program (or a
+part of a program). It also stores necessary information such as which file goes to which
+directory, what are the dependencies of this package, etc. A special program reads the
+package, installs dependencies and puts files into their appropriate locations. This is called
+a **package manager**. Of course besides installing, a package manager also manages updates
+and removals of programs. Ubuntu is based on Debian, so it inherits Debian's great package manager
+called **aptitude** (or simply `apt`). Let's take a look at wget's dependencies:
+
+
+
+The package manager maintains a list of available packages and their dependency/dependant
+relationships. For Ubuntu, the list is updated regularly on Canonical's official servers. Everytime
+Ubuntu does the "Check for updates" thing, it is downloading the latest list of packages. And when
+Ubuntu updates, it is simply pulling newer versions of the installed packages from Canonical's
+servers too. These servers are called **repositories**. All other major Linux distributions do the
+same thing: letting the package manager and the repositories work on their thing, saving users
+time to do more interesting stuff.
+
+Here are some basic commands to get you started:
+
+- `sudo apt-get install package-name` to install package
+- `sudo apt-get remove package-name` - it's obvious isn't it?
+- `sudo apt-get update` - update package list. Note that it only updates the list, not the packages
+- `sudo apt-get upgrade` - update packages
+
+There will be programs that are not available on the official repositories, but are provided as
+package files (Dropbox for example). Remember that the right package format for Ubuntu is `.deb`
+files. Do not open `.rpm` files since they are for Fedora's package manager called `yum`. When
+you've obtained the file, simply open it with Ubuntu Software Center to start installing.
+
+## Synaptic, Ubuntu Software Center
+
+Aptitude is only a command-line program, which is not very user-friendly. Synaptic is a GUI program
+that provides a nice user interface that's easy to use, while internally it uses `apt` to do all
+the actual work.
+
+
+
+Ubuntu Software Center is more than a GUI wrapper for `apt`. It is something similar to Apple's
+appstore with all those program ratings and promotions. It's nice for beginners but the fact that
+it hides the details like dependency list makes it undesirable for intermediate users. If you are
+comfortable with Synaptic, I strongly recommend using it as your main way to install/uninstall
+stuff. But ultimately, using the command-line `apt` always is the fastest way.
+
+[1]: http://askubuntu.com/questions/35478/how-do-i-mark-a-file-as-executable-via-a-gui
diff --git a/pelicanconf.py b/pelicanconf.py
index 0d46276..312a47b 100644
--- a/pelicanconf.py
+++ b/pelicanconf.py
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
from __future__ import unicode_literals
AUTHOR = u'Bùi Thành Nhân'
-SITENAME = u'Nhanb'
+SITENAME = u'Nerdy Weekly'
+SITESUBTITLE = u'By nhanb'
SITEURL = ''
THEME = u'/home/nhanb/open-source/pelican-octopress-theme'
@@ -58,7 +59,8 @@
# Social widget
SOCIAL = (('Github', 'https://github.com/nhanb'),
('Facebook', 'https://www.facebook.com/thanhnhanb'),
- ('Google+', 'https://plus.google.com/114388334309097537564'),
+ ('Google+',
+ 'https://plus.google.com/114388334309097537564?rel=author'),
)
## Blogroll