Linux Shell Environment Path

The current path environmental variable can be viewed

echo $PATH

capital letters on PATH. Want to know if a command is in $PATH?

which command

Need to add a directory path to the shell path statement for your own scripts?

• Per user shell

vi ~/.profile

Look for the line with a comment about "set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories" and add your custom path in there like this: ( added /myscripts to the path )

PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:/myscripts:$PATH"

note: In the past we used ~/.bash_profile and had to include "export PATH"

Look at /etc/profile which is used for each new user directory created. It has a script still looking for .bash_profile so it appears that if a .bash_profile is created, the script will identify its existence and use it.

IF THAT DOESN'T WORK - THIS WILL ...

vi ~/.bashrc
PATH="/myscripts:$PATH"

Note that .bashrc is executed every time a bash shell is opened and .bash_profile only if it's a login shell.

If you "sudo bash" then your custom path directories have vanished! /etc/sudoers is configured to replace your PATH with a default one. You have a couple options, either remove Defaults secure_path= from /etc/sudoers or add your custom directory to the secure_path in /etc/sudoers. For some stupid reason when you visudo the /etc/sudoers file opens in nano! stupid!

sudo update-alternatives --config editor

Will allow you to fix the stupid editor default (idiots at Ubuntu and Mint don't you think nano is for dosy people?)

sudo visudo

keywords: bash path bashrc bash_profile bash_history command set