Ok, this is is really bugging me. I am trying to set the PATH variable on my Mandrake 9.1 system, and I have looked in all the standard places to do this:

/etc/profile
/home/<me>/.bash_profile

But neither seems to be the "master" setting of the PATH variable...

My PATH is:

$ echo $PATH
/usr//bin:/bin:/usr/bin::/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/home/joe/bin:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_05/bin

I would like to get rid of the double "//" and the double "::" in the path because it annoys me, and I also want better control over the PATH for adding directories etc...

Now in my /etc/profile I have:

# Users generally won't see annoying core files
[ "$UID" = "0" ] && ulimit -S -c 1000000 > /dev/null 2>&1

if ! echo ${PATH} |grep -q /usr/X11R6/bin ; then
PATH="$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin"
fi

if [ "$UID" -ge 500 ] && ! echo ${PATH} |grep -q /usr/games ; then
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/games
fi

Which accounts for the ":/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games" portion of the path and in my /home/<me>/.bash_profile, I have:

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
PATH=$PATH:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_05/bin

Which accounts for the ":/home/joe/bin:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.1_05/bin" portion of the PATH, but that still leaves the "/usr//bin:/bin:/usr/bin::/usr/local/bin" portion unaccounted for.

I have found on Google groups discussions of this where they say to check in /etc/rc.sysinit, so I did, ini there I have:

# Set the path
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
export PATH

Which doesn't seem to match at all what is actually in the PATH, it looks like this is the first place where the PATH is being set (i.e. there's no "$PATH" reference in the assignment), but if that were true, how come, some of it is then later deleted??? Also stuff seems to be being added in front of the PATH, which while possible, seems to go against most good coding practices...

Also, some other postings suggest running the following command:

find /etc -type f -exec grep -H 'PATH' {} \;

Which returns a whole lot of files, but the following looked promising:

/etc/profile.d/msec.sh
/etc/profile.d/msec.csh
/etc/csh.login

However, /etc/profile.d/msec.csh and /etc/csh.login seem to be C Shell srcipts and I am using Bash... /etc/profile.d/msec.sh only contains the following:

if [ -n "$SECURE_LEVEL" ]; then
if [ "$SECURE_LEVEL" -le 1 ] && ! echo ${PATH} | fgrep -q :.; then
export PATH=$PATH:.
fi
fi

Which doesn't seem very helpful...

Does anyone know where the original PATH variable is set in Mandrake Linux???

Thanks!

You do not want to remove the // and :: from that list...they have a purpose for being there.

Ok, so what is their purpose and where are they being set? I at least want to know what they do and where they are configured...

Thanks!

For example - adding a new directory to your PATH: /home/joe/programs

in an xterm

PATH=$PATH:/home/joe/programs

export PATH

then

echo $PATH

and you'll see your new directory appended to the end of the list.....

Try looking in /etc/rc.sysinit

I am not 100% sure for your system, as I use tcsh on a r10 beta.

Sometimes there is a /home/<you>/.bashrc file as well, but it is unlikely the place for this.