Hey guys, I have a Network OS class and I have this lab report. Anyway, one of the questions is: 25. "Explain the output from the command “echo $PATH”. Exactly what is a path?." Where exactly can I find info on this? I ran the command in lab and didn't really understand it. I just want to know what an example output would be and what it means, as the question sounds.

Thanks guys,

acj

Have you tried googling, reading books etc?

We i.e. LinuxQuestions are not here to do your homework.

There are lot of Unix/Linux books/material online. You may wanna do a google search or buy a cheap Unix/Linux book.

It looks like the book should be an introductive, PC/general software geared one. Because a path is a path in both Windows and Linux, even if the syntax is not exactly the same.

Just to help you a bit.....PATH is an environment variable. Why don't you run the command and see what it does.

-twantrd

Welcome to LQ.org!

As the others have stated, this forum is not to be used as a place to get answers to homework. Google is your friend for that kind of stuff

http://linux.about.com/od/linux101/l/blnewbie3_1_4.htm

looky looky i did your homework using google and i just broke the rule.. well i'm a nice person, so let this one slide, just between you and me

This forum is a vast resource of problems and answers, so the first thing to do would be to do a search on the entire forum. Then google. Then more google. Then post a question. It is preferred that the user has put in some effort to show they are actually wanting to know how to do something or why something does what it does and not just want to know the answer without caring (for homework, as an example). I'm not saying you don't care just that you should search around a little first

I hope this was insightful

I happen to have a Red Hat Linux Admin guide...but it doesn't really mention that path stuff. I didn't want you to do my homework, or I would have simply asked you to do it for me. I asked for info on what the "echo Path" command does.

I did google it and it came to this website, so it made sense to post here..

Anyway, I appreciate the answers....

The command "echo" does what it says. It echoes whatever follows it to the command line. PATH is a variable in the shell, and putting a $ infront of it calls upon it. PATH stores the path directories to commands.

Hey thanks, I pretty much figured that out on that website you gave me. The "echo" part was pretty clear as I've worked with batch files before. Wasn't sure what the whole $PATH part was about though.

I appreciate the replies though....