I don't know if the original poster has since learned this, but I think
it's worth noting several things, in case the person coming over from
Windows hasn't figured it out.  (If this is a non-issue, please disregard
this email.)

1) Linux/Unix executables don't have a .exe extension.  Typically, they
don't have any extension at all, and can conceivably have every extension
imaginable (including common ones like .sh for scripts).  If you're looking
for an executable, forget looking for its extension.  Try using the "find"
command to look for executable files, or if you know the one you want,
already, use the "which" command, as above.

2) You almost certainly don't need to find that file.  As mentioned above,
if it's not in your PATH setting, then something is broken.  This is pretty
rare.  If you need to execute a command--from a terminal or from an "open
with" dialogue, just type the command (in the appropriate dialogue box, as
needed).  If you want to open a PDF, and the GUI hasn't figured out how to
do that, type "acroread", "evince", or whatever you have installed into the
box.

3) <rant> +1 about Windows having an absurdly hard-to-use filesystem, where
finding binaries/executables is concerned.  Once you learn Linux, you'll
bless its build-in filesystem, and probably find little/no need to mess
with it.  For that matter, +1 to all the stuff about /bin, /sbin,
/usr/local/bin, /usr/local/sbin, /opt, etc. having useful, specific
purposes.  Sure, it bugs me when some program insists on installing
someplace I don't think makes sense.  Usually it'll let me change it upon
install, if it's from a script, but if not, I can still put it into the
PATH if it's not already there, and after that it doesn't matter!  So long
as the uninstall functionality works for a given program (which it REALLY,
REALLY should...), and the executable structure of the program is remotely
sensible (looking at you, OpenOffice, Mozilla, etc.), it's all gravy, so
far as I'm concerned.  Proprietary programs are the more problematic
culprits, anyway, and there's not much a distribution can do about them, so
far as I'm aware.  </rant>

4) I've never liked Fedora, anyway.  :-p


I'm sure the real gurus here know a lot more about the specifics than I do,
so have at it!

--Dane


On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 3:16 AM, Colin Watson <cjwat...@ubuntu.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Nov 05, 2011 at 02:40:31AM +0800, John McCabe-Dansted wrote:
> > We could even enhance which to look in obvious places off the path
> (perhaps
> > locatedb?)  and print the output on stderr if we really wanted to.
>
> Please don't - 'which' is used in scripts and needs to preserve its
> current behaviour.  Any extra behaviour should be added to a
> different/new program.
>
> --
> Colin Watson                                       [cjwat...@ubuntu.com]
>
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