Really quick question here folks. Well, just a matter of correcting me if im wrong.

When you install new piece of software from source and it comes with some bin files that you run to use the program, if you want those programs to be available without having to use the full path, you need to put the path into ld.so.conf and run ldconfig correct?

For instance, I installed a piece of software into /usr/local/stuff.

It has a bin directory below it that has many options that can be run from the command line:

/usr/local/stuff/bin/mailstuff

Now, while at my command line, I cannot type mailstuff as it cannot find it...

Now, if I add the path /usr/local/stuff to my ld.so.conf and run ldconfig, that should make it work when I try to use it from the command line, correct?

Or is this something I need to add to my $PATh variable...

I get the $PATH variable and ld.so.conf things mixed up...

Anyone have a good explanation for these?

Tarballed

The ld.so.conf file is from my understanding for libs, not the search path for commands/programs.

If you have a program and its not in the current users path, you'll need to add that like you mentioned before.

Adding /usr/local/stuff/bin to your $PATH will work if that's the directory where all the commands reside. If the tree is more complicated, such as if /usr/local/stuff/bin/mailstuff is a directory then it may be easier to just add symlinks in /usr/local/bin to whatever commands you want to use.