[rhn-users] Newbie Question - What is actually executing the binary?

[jludwig]

On Sat, 2004-06-05 at 21:52, snodx at hotmail.com wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> I am a newbie here (totally new to Information Technology) you could 
> say.
> 
> I have studied a bit about Linux, but I am not getting the awnser to
> this question, infact you could say that all the keyword combinations
> I have tried so far in Google are not yielding any results.
> 
> Here is the question, any thing that I type on Redhat's command terminal,
> where is the command terminal actually sending it to? For eg if I
> type say "ls -l" what is actually executing the "ls" binary in the
> back-end? Which is the software program that is opening the "ls"
> binary executable file, traversing through the binary instructions
> in this file, understanding it and executing it?

1) All operating systems have a kernel (the kernel is the operating
   system, linux2.4.xxx, command.com, etc)

2) The shell is the command interpreter (bash, tsh, msdos, drdos, etc) 

> What I am getting out of Linux books is that there is a shell which is
> interacting with the user and there is the kernel which is actually
> executing the instructions but I want to know more. Which kernel
> program is recieving the instructions from the shell?
> 
There is a program ls (in /bin).

When the command in typed in <ls -l> the command interpreter (the
default for Linux is bash) reads the input (command 'ls' and the
arguments '-l' ). It then locates the command and (if found, it must
exist and be in your path) executes that command and feeds the command
any arguments.

> Sorry for this dumb question. I did'nt where else to post it.
> 

The only dump question is the one not asked.
> SNODX
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(This is stuff I haven't dealt with for years is I it mess up let me
know.)
-- 
jludwig <wralphie at comcast.net>