Getting the Linux Functionality You Want

This post runs a little techie, so if you are not interested, just move on. The problem I faced was I wanted to run the htop command that I had seen on another Linux system. It's nicer looking than top, and seems to give you more useful info. The way I have seen for installing new commands on Linux is apt-get package-name (ie, apt-get htop), but the error message from Debian Linux apt-get was "you are not root (privileged), do you want to change to root?"

Now, I am not the root user on 1&1, nor do I want to be. The stuff on the web was along the lines of give them root access, and they'll install anything and everything; it's dangerous, etc., etc. The message from Debian and 1&1 was: you have to be root to install commands. But after muddling around Google and the Debian website for a while, and fiddling with non-root messages and finding no fixes or workarounds, it struck me: I don't want to install or modify a system-wide command, I run want to run the htop program.

Here's the Readers-Digest-411: download the source for the program/command you're interested in (in my case htop), and follow the instructions in the INSTALL file for compiling and what-not. There might be some error messages related to trying to install the program system wide, but those specific messages can be ignored. Presto.

The moral of the story is: whenever they're telling you you can't do this because of that, pay no attention, and keep focused on what your goal is. It can pay off in the end.

nb: neither 1&1 nor Debian are at fault here. 1&1 has their policy for shared web hosting, and Debian looks like they lack some vision--but that's not a major failing.

--pjm