How to execute in other directory? - c

Question

I have three directories:
/home/Desktop/1
/home/Desktop/2
/home/Desktop/3
In the directories 1 and 2 are executable C programs, which can be executed in the terminal like this ./tst1 or ./tst2.
In the directory 3 I have a bash script, which executes a C program tst3.c from the same directory.
I want to execute these C programs from directories 1 and 2 using my bash script in the directory 3 like this
#!/bin/bash
sudo ./tst3
sleep 1
sudo ./tst1 # from directory 1
sleep 2
sudo ./tst2 # from directory 2
Any ideas?

Answer 1

You have multiple options, including at least:
Set PATH to include the directories where your commands are found:
#!/bin/bash
export PATH="$PATH:/home/Desktop/1:/home/Desktop/2:/home/Desktop/3"
sudo tst3 # from directory 3
sleep 1
sudo tst1 # from directory 1
sleep 2
sudo tst2 # from directory 2
Use absolute paths to the commands:
#!/bin/bash
sudo /home/Desktop/3/tst3 # from directory 3
sleep 1
sudo /home/Desktop/1/tst1 # from directory 1
sleep 2
sudo /home/Desktop/2/tst2 # from directory 2
Use relative paths to the commands:
#!/bin/bash
sudo ../3/tst3 # from directory 3
sleep 1
sudo ../1/tst1 # from directory 1
sleep 2
sudo ../2/tst2 # from directory 2
These treat the directories symmetrically. Another alternative is to place the commands in a directory already on your PATH (like $HOME/bin, perhaps), and then run them without any path. This is what I'd normally do — ensure the commands to be run are in a directory on my PATH.

Answer 2

If you are simply trying to locate the scripts:
#!/bin/bash
base_dir="$( dirname "$( readlink -e "$0" )" )"/..
sudo "$base_dir/3/tst3"
sleep 1
sudo "$base_dir/1/tst1"
sleep 2
sudo "$base_dir/2/tst2"
or
#!/bin/bash
cd "$( dirname "$( readlink -e "$0" )" )"/..
sudo 3/tst3
sleep 1
sudo 1/tst1
sleep 2
sudo 2/tst2
If you want the CWD to be changed the directory of each executable before executing it:
#!/bin/bash
cd "$( dirname "$( readlink -e "$0" )" )"
sudo ./tst3
cd ../1
sleep 1
sudo ./tst1
cd ../2
sleep 2
sudo ./tst2
These scripts will work properly even if its launched from a directory other than the directory it's found in. They will even work if they are launched via a symlink!