Loading a program through terminal

Kevinn · 2010-02-07 23:24:54

Hi

im not exactly sure what command to use in xterm when i want to load a certain program. how do i go about finding what command to use, to load the program i want?

so far ive figured out that typing in the name of most programs in xterm will then load them, but sometimes this isnt the case

for example, i just installed openoffice and i do not know how to load it (specifically the writer) through the xterm

how do i know what command to use????

jt512 · 2010-02-07 23:31:42

The command to start openoffice is `soffice`. That one drove me nuts for a while.

JackH79 · 2010-02-07 23:32:06

The command for openoffice is:

soffice -writer

for writer, or

soffice -calc

, or

soffice -impress

If you need to find out what command you need to get something working, look into the man pages. Usually at the very top, there is a line describing what you need and what possible options you can use as well.

Roline · 2010-02-07 23:35:58

Man the pkg name. In most cases the pkg name is the terminal command, but the man page shows name and options. For example I start conky with "$conky -d" this opens conky and the option is -d.

to man, just simply "man PKGNAME" with PKGNAME variable. To leave man hit the q!

Tip: try "man man"

Kevinn · 2010-02-07 23:46:06

thanks for the replies that was quite helpful

but i have a couple of inqueries...

what if I type in "man PKGNAME"
but then there are no manual enteries for a that specific program

for example the package name of open office is "openoffice-en-GB"

and if i type in "man openoffice-en-GB" nothing comes up

so what do i do if there are no man enteries, what should be my preceeding steps??

also im using openbox and thunar right now

im trying to get open office to load in my menu, so i opened up obmenu and typed in the execute box "soffice -writer" to load writer but it does not work im not sure what to do, i also went in to the menu.xml manually and tried to change the command as well but it didnt work

Last edited by Kevinn (2010-02-07 23:47:35)

Ghost1227 · 2010-02-07 23:55:31

Kevinn wrote:

what if I type in "man PKGNAME"
but then there are no manual enteries for a that specific program
for example the package name of open office is "openoffice-en-GB"
and if i type in "man openoffice-en-GB" nothing comes up
so what do i do if there are no man enteries, what should be my preceeding steps??

PKGNAME is misleading. actually the command you want is "man BINNAME". In other words, you want to search man for is the name of the actual binary.

Kevinn · 2010-02-08 00:01:25

so how do i go about finding the 'BINNAME' ?

Oxyd · 2010-02-08 00:07:35

Kevinn wrote:

so how do i go about finding the 'BINNAME' ?

"pacman -Ql $PKGNAME | grep bin" is my favourite.

tomk · 2010-02-08 00:54:43

eight posts to get to the right answer... must be an off-day around here.

Ghost1227 · 2010-02-08 01:06:21

Hey! I had the right answer... never occurred to me that you wouldn't know the actual name of a binary that you're running...

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-07 23:24:54

Loading a program through terminal

#2 2010-02-07 23:31:42

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#3 2010-02-07 23:32:06

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#4 2010-02-07 23:35:58

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#5 2010-02-07 23:46:06

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#6 2010-02-07 23:55:31

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#7 2010-02-08 00:01:25

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#8 2010-02-08 00:07:35

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#9 2010-02-08 00:54:43

Re: Loading a program through terminal

#10 2010-02-08 01:06:21

Re: Loading a program through terminal

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