what do i need to do to make my c++ program run by only entering the name on my unix system [closed]
You should add the directory where your compiled program is to your PATH.
For example if you are inside the /home/jimmy/cpp directory
type (leading $ is the prompt)
PATH=$PATH:`pwd`$myprogRead about exporting variables and the bashrc file to make this change permanent. (assuming bash as your shell)
A detailed discussion of why putting . (current directory) in the PATH is a bad idea.
Lets say you're being attacked by an adversary on your machine.He authors a malicious program, and puts it in a directory, hoping that you'll stumble on it eventually. To increase his chances, he names it something common like mv.
If you have added . to the beginning of your path, and happen to be in the right directory when you type mv onefile twofile... then the local mv (./mv) gets run instead of the mv command we're all used too! This happens because . is in your path, and the local mv will be found before the /usr/bin/mv. Suddenly, your user account or the entire machine may be horribly compromised.
(note: mv might be one of the built-in commands, and immune to this. Not sure... but the principle is solid)
So, you learn the lesson, and now put . at the end of your path, so that all "official" directories will be searched before the local directory.
But the attacker is now on to you! Instead of the program mv, he creates in a program mc, which is a common typo for mv. Again, you intend to type mv onefile twofile, but make a simple typo to mc. Now all the "official" directories are searched, the program mc is not found, and finally it is found in the local directory. Malicious code is run, and again you lose.
The lesson is that your PATH should only cover known-good software, and since your current directory changes frequently, you never know exactly what software is there, and should never run it unless you're very explicit about it with the ./ prefix (eg. > ./IMeanToRunThis)