Issue
I am trying to create a directory using mkdir in Debian but the problem is that the directory is created in the root directory. The problem comes trying to install OpenFOAM and I suspect that it is because "$" is used to create it.
Following the instructions in the OpenFOAM web site, it says to create a folder
$HOME/OpenFOAM/user-2.2.1
and then, to create within a folder called "run" using:
mkdir -p /FOAM_RUN
the problem is that the final directory (run) should have the following form:
/home/OpenFOAM/user-2.2.1/run
but using Debian I cannot create a dir with "sudo", so I have to do it as root and when I go inside the directory /home/OpenFOAM/user-2.2.1 and I do mkdir -p /FOAM_RUN , then the created folder is:
/root/OpenFOAM/root-2.2.1/run
and I need it to be created in the /home directory and not in the /root directory. I had created the folder just using
mkdir -p /home/OpenFOAM/user-2.2.1/run
but when I try to execute the OpenFOAM orders it doesn't work.
My questions are:
Why should mkdir $FOAM_RUN create the run directory and if I do it just as "mkdir run", it doesn't work?
Why is the "$" symbol there when I use mkdir? I was searching for it and (for example) the mkdir manual says nothing about it.
Excuse me, I am not an expert in Linux.
Solution
The instructions are fairly straightforward, but you seem to have missed one of the notes. To reiterate a point they are making, you need to source ~/.bashrc after updating it. Then if you echo "$FOAM_RUN" you should see that this variable is now set to something like /home/luser/OpenFOAM/luser-2.2.1/run.
If you prefer to override it by hand, and assuming your user name is luser and your OpenFOAM version is 2.2.1, do this:
FOAM_RUN=$HOME/OpenFOAM/$USER-2.2.1/run
mkdir -p "$FOAM_RUN" # Note pedantic quoting
But if your .bashrc contains the code they instruct you to add, this should not be necessary.
Answered By - tripleee Answer Checked By - Willingham (WPSolving Volunteer)