add dirs to $PATH

zchoyt · 09-12-2004, 08:18 PM

Hey, I am trying to add more dirs to the $PATH variable. I tried adding:

PATH=new dir

to my .bashrc file. That really screwed me up, but I got it fixed.
Do I just have the syntax wrong? Should it be

PATH=$PATH:/new dir

Will that work? I dont wanna go through that mess again.

HAR HAR!

zchoyt · 09-12-2004, 08:19 PM

That would (if that is the way) add to the path of that user. I want to know that, but also want to know how to add to the path for all users.

David the H. · 09-13-2004, 04:07 AM

In Debian at least, the default PATH is located in /etc/profile. If you modify it there it should be available to all users in all cases. .bashrc is only read by non-login shells, I believe.

If you only want to modify the PATH in order to make one or two programs work automatically, there's an easier way to do it. Just symlink the program file to a folder already in the path, like /usr/bin. Then bash should find it when it looks.

Santas · 09-13-2004, 01:43 PM

to canche your path you have to do 'export PATH=$PATH:/dir/to/the/dir' and you can include this in .bashrc of each user.
It must be a way to do it one time for all users but i don't know where to put it. Try searching in this forum and good luck.

serz · 09-13-2004, 02:00 PM

Santas is correct.

Now, if you only want this for your user then it's ok having that line in ~/.bashrc, if you want to make this general then you have to change /etc/profile.