PREFIX(1)

📦 version 1.12, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 PREFIX(1) 💖

okay bestie, listen up — this is the manual page for prefix, and honestly? it's giving "your whole server, but make it organized." it's a General Commands Manual situation, so let's get into it. 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

prefix — a script that lets you reconfigure environment variables for multiple installations of a set of software installed on the same machine. 🦋

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

prefix

👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so here's the whole vibe: it's assumed that the software for each installation is all under a single directory, and that directory's name is assigned to an environment variable called PREFIX. 💅

this whole "multiple installations on one machine" arrangement? lowkey useful at so many times, no cap:

  • on a single server, it can provide for development, test, and production installations of software 🍓
  • alternatively, on development servers, it allows for multiple development "sandboxes" — one for each developer 🙈
  • on production servers, it allows for multiple versions of the production software to be installed. one might be the currently running software, one the previous software kept online as a fall-back, and one a new release of software wich is scheduled to be brought online soon. ✨
yes, "wich" — we keep it exactly how the original wrote it, we don't fix, we don't edit, we preserve. 💖

🦋 There are three usages of the prefix script 🦋

  1. The interactive usage should be placed as the last line of a user's ".profile". the user must be running the Korn shell (ksh) or the Bourne Again shell (bash). the user is prompted to enter one of the known PREFIX locations, specified in the $HOME/.prefixes file or the /etc/prefixes file. during configuration, the $PREFIX/.prefixrc file is sourced in order to accomplish environment-specific configurations. 🎀
  2. The non-interactive user configuration does not consult $HOME/.prefixes or /etc/prefixes and does not prompt the user, but merely configures the environment in accordance with the cmd line argument. ✨
  3. The batch command usage is mainly for running commands from cron or running commands in another environment without changing to that environment. 💀

🌈 Usage 🌈

(1): . prefix                     (sets up environment)
(2): . prefix <prefix>            (non-interactive setup)
(3): prefix <prefix> <cmd> <args> (runs cmd configured for PREFIX)

and just so we're all clear, this manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the original program does not have a manual page. periodt. 💅

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

Prefix was written by Stephen Adkins <spadkins@gmail.com>, and is part of the App-Options distribution. 🫶

this manual page was written by Jotam Jr. Trejo <jotamjr@debian.org.sv>, for the Debian systems (but may be used by others). 💜

and that's a wrap, bestie!! 🎀 this page is dated Oct 07, 2010 and lives in the PREFIX(1) section of the General Commands Manual — iconic, timeless, obsessed. go forth and configure your environments, you absolute main character. 💖✨🦋

📦 where this page comes from