pford

I thought I would give the bash shell a try. (Please keep in mind that
I am a unix novice or, in other words, I don't know what I am doing.)
Both methods on how to alter the shell permanently work. Thanks!

Going back the the bash shell, the suggestes cmd line does the
following:

$ tsch RSI-DIR/idl_6.0/bin/idl_setup
-bash: tsch: command not found

idl does have a bash script at idl_6.0/bin


Patrick-Fords-Computer:/idl_6.0/bin patrickford$ more idl_setup.bash
# Bash shell commands to define IDL environment variables and aliases.
#
# This script can be used by IDL users who use Bash as their
interactive shell
# to define the environment variables and aliases required by IDL
# related commands (idl, idlde, idlhelp, idldemo) if the symbolic
links to
# the default directory (/usr/local/rsi/idl) are not being used.
#
# Bash users should run idl_setup from their .profile file
# using the following command:
#
# . /usr/local/rsi/idl_6.0/bin/idl_setup.bash
#
RSI_DIR=/usr/local/rsi
IDL_DIR=/usr/local/rsi/idl_6.0
export IDL_DIR RSI_DIR
alias rsilicense=$IDL_DIR/bin/rsilicense
alias idl=$IDL_DIR/bin/idl
alias idlde=$IDL_DIR/bin/idlde
alias idldeclient=$IDL_DIR/bin/idldeclient
alias idlhelp=$IDL_DIR/bin/idlhelp
alias idlman=$IDL_DIR/bin/idlman
alias idlrpc=$IDL_DIR/bin/idlrpc
alias idldemo=$IDL_DIR/bin/idldemo
___________________________________

Trying a variety of different paths to run it, I get the same basic
message:
$ idl_setup.bash
-bash: idl_setup.bash: command not found

Usually this turns out to be some trivial solution, but I don't yet
know what I am doing wrong here. I thought I could invoke a script by
typing in its name into the shell while I was in that directory.

Clues appreciated. Thanks in advance.

jd smith

This isn't a script, its just a list of commands. In bash and other
Bourne-like-shells you can "source" (i.e. run) this list of commands
using ".", i.e.

$ . idl_setup.bash

Shell scripts start with "#!/bin/bash", or something like this; think of
it like the distinction in IDL between files you can "@" and files you
can ".run".

A better method might be to make your own set of aliases and environment
variables in a .bashrc or the equivalent startup file. I also like to
make IDL_DIR just be "idl" which is a symbolic link to idl_6.0, etc.
This facilitates running multiple versions of IDL in the "probation"
period when new releases come out.

Good luck,

JD

tim mcnamara

pford@bcm.tmc.edu (Patrick Ford) writes:


Did anybody answer this guy's question?

Go to /Applications/Utilities/Netinfo Manager and work through the
panes from / => users => youraccount and change the default shell to
whatever you want. Save the changes and you're done. You'll need
the admin password, of course.

hugh wolf

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.sys.mac.system.]

Yes. The simplest answer in Panther is to use the chsh command.