Guiless Installs

Guiless Installs

You know I love the command line. Come on, admit it. You’re starting to get a feel for it, too. If you are, you’ll love today’s GnomeTWEAK - downloading and installing programs in one quick step without a GUI.

The lynx program in many Linux distributions is a great way to save time and GUI resources, yet still achieve the goal of quick and easy istalls. Lynx is a text-based browser - pretty much useless for today’s web. However, it accepts command line options that keep it incredibly functional. If, for example, you’re looking to download and install the Ximian dekstop for Gnome, you can use the following command:

    lynx -source http://go-gnome.com | sh

This points lynx to the source tree for Ximian and pipes [|] the results to the [sh]ell. The result is that the code is downloaded then executed and installed. It’s a quick and lightweight way to accomplish a task that might take several steps using a graphical interface.

Many download sites, if you’re looking for it, post the address to download and install files in this manner. Note, too, that lynx has been replaced in current RedHat versions with links though the functionality is much the same. The lynx man page contains a complete description of the uses and options for lynx.