Help setting $PATH variable
 

Ok, I've just downloaded and installed the Java 2 SDK and did 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/java' (without the quotes of course). The problem is that whenever I close the term, it unsets and goes back to the default. Any ideas? Thanx.

add it to the user's .bashrc and/or .bash_profile for a single user

or to /etc/profile for everybody

You can append to the PATH variable by adding to your new path to the .bash_profile
.bash_profile is the login script for a user and it is located in the HOME directory of each user.
OR
You can set system wide variables and startup programs by adding to the /etc/profile

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I posted at the same time as jalal,
mental note... next time... type faster. :D

dont you mean /usr/local/java/bin, not /usr/local/java?

Neither .bashrc or .bash_profile exist in my /home/nick. I edited /etc/profile:

PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/j2sdk1.4.2/bin"

When I do 'echo $PATH', the new directory isn't there, so I also get 'java: command not found' :/.

No, actually I meant /usr/local/j2sdk1.4.2/bin :).

they don't have to. just create a .bashrc/.bash_profile in your ~ dir and restart the term (if under X).

for /etc/profile, it didn't do anything because it was read when the system was booted. it will take effect next time you boot (hopefully :))

Oh ok, sorted now. Thanx :).

To save yourself a reboot (after all, this is linux ;) ) you can just:
source /etc/profile

Cool

Heh, cool. I'll remember that next time I need to change /etc/profile. Thanx again.