Originally Posted By: artie505
Thanks for that, but what am I doing wrong?

Code:
Last login: Sat Jan 14 02:30:26 on ttys000
Artie-s-Computer-4:~ artie$ chmod a+x /Users/artie/Desktop/cc.txt 
Artie-s-Computer-4:~ artie$

and "cc" is still not executable.

Well —due to that .txt extension —cc doesn't exist (but cc.txt does). So if you type the full path ~/Desktop/cc.txt then it will execute. Better yet, remove (not just hide) the extension completely.

Originally Posted By: artie505
And I'm afraid that "$PATH" is a bit beyond my experience; does it mean /bin?

Yes, /bin is typically always part of $PATH. That's why we can simply type ls instead of needing to type /bin/ls every time. Rather than tapping out all the details on my iPad, i offer this link:

http://hayne.net/MacDev/Notes/unixFAQ.html

Edit: note that users should not place custom shell scripts in /bin but rather into /usr/local/bin (or, create their own ~/bin folder) and then modify $PATH accordingly.

Last edited by Hal Itosis; 01/14/12 02:36 PM.