Hello,
I have three Linux books and none of them really explain what it is I'm
doing when I set an environment variable. I gather that I'm telling my
kernel where to find things, but that's a foggy concept.
My main concern is java libraries. I downloaded jdk117_v1a and
jdk117_v3 and have those installed, besides a directory that is already
in my /usr/local/bin directory called "java", and whatever java stuff
Netscape puts on here.
WHen I export a JAVA_HOME, am I appending to a file somewhere for a new
place to include when looking for java files? Or am I overwriting the
path (therefore making my other java homes not work anymore?) If
there's a file I'm writing to, what is it?
I ask because I have a few programs that call for different java
versions (Netscape seems to come with its own package) and I don't want
one program to screw the other over if possible. For example, I don't
want to overwrite paths that Netscape needs when I install jdk117 for
ICQJava and in doing so, export a JAVA_HOME path to jdk117. But is this
what I am in fact doing?
If someone can explain this to me, or point me to literature that will
answer my question, I would appreciate it. Right now I have "Running
Linux" by O'Reilly and I have "Redhat Unleashed" and then "The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Linux" and they really don't answer my question. I
don't see any HOW TO's about this topic, or any docs. Thanks!!
Karen
