Subject: Re: firefox-bin failing
To: Ed Gould <ed@left.wing.org>
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
List: port-i386
Date: 04/12/2006 16:45:33
On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 13:30:34 -0700, Ed Gould <ed@left.wing.org> wrote:
> I installed the www/firefox-bin package, with the MOZILLA_USE_LINUX
> flag set. All went as expected during the installation. When I try to
> run the binary, I get
>
> /usr/pkg/lib/firefox-linux/firefox-bin: 1: Syntax error: "("
> unexpected
>
> This looks like some sort of compatibility flag missing, but I don't
> see what it is. I have all the COMPAT_* options enabled, except for
> versions of NetBSD prior to 2.0 (this machine runs -current, last
> updated a few days ago), 4.3BSD, MACH and DARWIN. If it's one of
> those, then the documentation needs improving.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
That error typically means it's being interpreted by the shell as a shell
script -- it doesn't have any magic numbers that the kernel recognizes
(and hence exec fails), so the shell tries to run it itself.
Why that should happen in this case i don't know.
--Steven M. Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb