LinuxQuestions.org - editing PATH in bash profile

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kaiwan

05-21-2008 04:24 AM

editing PATH in bash profile

Hi!
I have installed Fedora 9.
When I try to run some command, like fdisk I get following error:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ fdisk

bash: fdisk: command not found

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ sudo fdisk

sudo: fdisk: command not found

So I edited my bash profile to add /sbin and /usr/sbin to PATH,
and it looks lite this now:

Code:

# .bash_profile



# Get the aliases and functions

if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then

        . ~/.bashrc

fi



# User specific environment and startup programs



PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$HOME/bin



export PATH

unset USERNAME

And still I cant run fdisk, only way to run it is like this:

Code:

sudo /sbin/fdisk

Does not work after log out or reboot.

Nathanael

05-21-2008 04:43 AM

what does

Code:

sudo -s

echo $PATH

give you?

note: sudo echo $PATH is not the same!

kaiwan

05-21-2008 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nathanael (Post 3160063)

what does

Code:

sudo -s

echo $PATH

give you?

note: sudo echo $PATH is not the same!

Gives me this:

While not root:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ echo $PATH

/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/home/miroslav/bin

[miroslav@localhost ~]$

Root - with sudo:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ sudo -s

[sudo] password for miroslav: 

[root@localhost ~]# echo $PATH

/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

[root@localhost ~]#

Root - with su:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ su

Password: 

[root@localhost miroslav]# echo $PATH

/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/home/miroslav/bin

[root@localhost miroslav]#

colucix

05-21-2008 04:58 AM

You cannot run fdisk without being root. Actually you can, but it does nothing nor spit any error message. I think it checks if your UID is 0 (root) otherwise exits.

kaiwan

05-21-2008 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colucix (Post 3160073)

You cannot run fdisk without being root. Actually you can, but it does nothing nor spit any error message. I think it checks if your UID is 0 (root) otherwise exits.

Problem exist wile I am root as well:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ su

Password: 

[root@localhost miroslav]# fdisk

bash: fdisk: command not found

jschiwal

05-21-2008 05:25 AM

You need to run "su -" to run as root with root's environment. What is wrong with "sudo /sbin/fdisk"?

Also, .profile or .bash_login are better places to edit your PATH variable. Every subshell you launch will add /usr to path again unless you test for it's presence before adding it.

kaiwan

05-21-2008 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal (Post 3160098)

You need to run "su -" to run as root with root's environment. What is wrong with "sudo /sbin/fdisk"?

Thanks, that worked:

Code:

[miroslav@localhost ~]$ su -

Password: 

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk



Usage: fdisk [-l] [-b SSZ] [-u] device

E.g.: fdisk /dev/hda  (for the first IDE disk)

  or: fdisk /dev/sdc  (for the third SCSI disk)

  or: fdisk /dev/eda  (for the first PS/2 ESDI drive)

  or: fdisk /dev/rd/c0d0  or: fdisk /dev/ida/c0d0  (for RAID devices)

  ...

[root@localhost ~]# echo $PATH

/usr/kerberos/sbin:/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/root/bin

Nothing is wrong with "sudo /sbin/fdisk",
but I wanted to explore other options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal (Post 3160098)

Also, .profile or .bash_login are better places to edit your PATH variable. Every subshell you launch will add /usr to path again unless you test for it's presence before adding it.

Not sure I understand what to do ?

jschiwal

05-21-2008 06:07 AM

If you don't have a ~/.profile or ~/.bash_login file you can create one yourself and put the same "export PATH=PATH:/usr" command there instead of in ~/.bashrc.

When you login, your .profile might source your .bash_rc file. When you open a new terminal, such as konsole, ~/.bashrc will be run again, and your PATH variable will end with ":/usr:/usr". Some PATH variables contain many more paths, for example adding directories for KDE, Gnome & Java. Having them repeated two or three times in PATH may waste some time searching in the same directories more than once.

kaiwan

05-21-2008 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal (Post 3160140)

thanks, I will try to do that!

Nathanael

05-21-2008 06:40 AM

would it search more than once? i thought when a file is searchd in $PATH it stops after the first match...

chrism01

05-21-2008 07:14 PM

Y, but if it doesn't find it, it'll continue to search every dir in the PATH, each time it appears...!

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