How to naturally run a program/script in Ubuntu

instructions.md

Symbolic Link

Use this when you don't want the actual program in a folder in your $PATH.

1. Move folder to /usr/lib/ (optional)

    sudo mv program_directory /usr/lib
   

2. Create a symbolic link in /usr/local/bin/

    sudo ln -s /usr/lib/program_directory/program /usr/local/bin/program
    # Now you can launch the program from anywhere in the terminal by typing "program".
   

3. Create a launcher in Unity (optional)

    sudo program /usr/share/applications/program.desktop
   

Place the program in your path

1. mv path/to/program /usr/local/bin or to some other directory in your PATH.

program.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Program Name
# Only KDE 4 seems to use GenericName, so we reuse the KDE strings.
# From Ubuntu's language-pack-kde-XX-base packages, version 9.04-20090413.
GenericName=Text Editor

Exec=program
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/lib/program_directory/icon.png
Type=Application
Categories=TextEditor;IDE;Development
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow

[NewWindow Shortcut Group]
Name=New Window
Exec=program -n
TargetEnvironment=Unity