[TAG] how to open .exe file

[Ben Okopnik]

On Fri, Mar 16, 2007 at 09:01:38AM +0000, Thomas Adam wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:25:23 +0530
> training <training at iconitservices.com> wrote:
> 
> > dear sir,
> > 
> > how can  i open and .exe files in redhat linux.
> 
> You don't natively.  Instead, you might use something like 'wine'.

'training' - (may I call you that? I feel that, through this exchange of
emails, we've become, if not close friends, then at least intimate
enough to call each other by our first names) - what do you mean by
"open"? If you're trying to see what the content is, then there are
plenty of viewers: you could use 'bvi' to see the all the ASCII bits
including their addresses; 'vi -r' or any other editor that does not
"interpret" the content but just shows it to you; 'view', 'less',
'more', etc. to just see what's inside without any danger of overwriting
it; 'strings' (perhaps with the '-a' option) to see only the
human-readable strings in the file, and so on.  Heck, you could even use
your favorite browser if you don't mind a bit of distortion.

On the other hand, if you wanted to execute it - well, there's 'dosemu'
for programs that output only to the DOS console, and 'wine', as Thomas
mentioned, for the simpler GUI apps. If, however, it is the standard
modern virus-loaded, spyware-installing, system-backdoor-creating
Wind0ws program... well, I'm afraid that we can't help you; you'd need
an actual, gin-u-wine (that is, *not* 'wine') Wind0ws OS to experience
its full functionality. Linux kernels are *really* hard to convince that
they should accept a virus, and I'm afraid I don't even know of any
patches that could remedy the situation.

(Often, considering whether a Wind0ws application needs to be run on a
Linux system _at all_ leads to interesting conclusions (like "NO".)
Perhaps that's something you may want to think about. :)


-- 
* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *