[TriLUG] missing packages help

[Alan Porter]

> ran yum list libodbcinst.so.1 and it didnt list anything.
> ran yum list lib* and it still didnt find anything...

The second command did not list anything because the shell expands 
wildcards.  The shell would look at "lib*" and replace that with the 
names of files in your current directory that begin with "lib".  That's 
not what you MEANT, but it IS what you SAID.

When there are no files that begin with "lib", the shell can do one of 
two things:
(1) replace "lib*" with ""
(2) keep the "lib*"

Each of these may seem intuitive under different circumstances, and some 
shell scripts may rely on a particular behavior.  Fortunately, bash lets 
you set which behavior you prefer, with a setting called "nullglob".  
You can choose option (1) with "shopt -s nullglob" or option (2) with 
"shopt -u nullglob".

Do a "man bash" and search for "Pathname Expansion".  Details about 
"shopt" are found in the section called "SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS".


Alan






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