NAME

       prefix  -  Script  that  allows  you  to  reconfigure  environment  variables for multiple
       installations of a set of software installed on the same machine

SYNOPSIS

       prefix

DESCRIPTION

       It is assumed that the software for each installation is  all  under  a  single  directory
       whose name is assigned to an environment variable called PREFIX.

       This  arrangement  of  enabling  multiple installations of software on a single machine is
       useful at many times. 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.

       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 or 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)

       This manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the original program does
       not have a manual page.

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).

                                           Oct 07, 2010                                 PREFIX(1)