Re: No such file or directory

[Michael Williamson]

Hi Aharon,

Thanks for your explanation. Now I have another question.
Why is the error message for ENOENT simply
"No such file or directory", when the man page for execve
has this complete description:
"The file filename or a script or ELF interpreter does not exist,
 or a shared library needed for file  or  interpreter  cannot  be
 found."?

Thanks,
-Mike



On 1/1/13, Aharon Robbins <arnold@skeeve.com> wrote:
> In article <mailman.16481.1357062499.855.bug-bash@gnu.org>,
> Michael Williamson  <michael.h.williamson@gmail.com> wrote:
>>Hi,
>>
>>I have a complaint. Apparently, when unknowingly attempting to run a
>>32-bit executable file on a 64-bit computer, bash gives the error message
>>"No such file or directory". That error message is baffling and
>> frustratingly
>>unhelpful. Is it possible for bash to provide a better error message
>>in this case?
>>
>>Thanks,
>>-Mike
>
> It's not Bash. That is the error returned from the OS in errno when
> it tries to do an exec(2) of the file.  Bash merely translates the
> error into words.
>
> Depending on the distro, it's usually not too hard to install the 32 bit
> compatibility files to support 32 bit executables.  The "enterprise"
> distibutions tend to do that by default, whereas the more free ones
> (Fedora, Ubuntu, ...) require that you do it yourself.
>
> I agree, it's confusing.  But it's a decision made by the kernel guys,
> not Bash.
>
> HTH,
>
> Arnold
> --
> Aharon (Arnold) Robbins                       arnold AT skeeve DOT com
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