LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] I added a PATH to /etc/profile but "echo $PATH" says it's not there?

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I added a PATH to /etc/profile but "echo $PATH" says it's not there?

I added /usr/games/bin to root's PATH in the /etc/profile file, but it isn't showing up when I run "echo $PATH". I can do PATH=$PATH:/usr/games/bin but this change isn't persistent. It'll undo itself when I open a new terminal.. How do I fix this? Here is my /etc/profile configuration....

Code:

# /etc/profile: login shell setup

#

# That this file is used by any Bourne-shell derivative to setup the

# environment for login shells.

#



# Load environment settings from profile.env, which is created by

# env-update from the files in /etc/env.d

if [ -e /etc/profile.env ] ; then

        . /etc/profile.env

fi



# You should override these in your ~/.bashrc (or equivalent) for per-user

# settings.  For system defaults, you can add a new file in /etc/profile.d/.

export EDITOR=${EDITOR:-/bin/nano}

export PAGER=${PAGER:-/usr/bin/less}



# 077 would be more secure, but 022 is generally quite realistic

umask 022



# Set up PATH depending on whether we're root or a normal user.

# There's no real reason to exclude sbin paths from the normal user,

# but it can make tab-completion easier when they aren't in the

# user's PATH to pollute the executable namespace.

#

# It is intentional in the following line to use || instead of -o.

# This way the evaluation can be short-circuited and calling whoami is

# avoided.

if [ "$EUID" = "0" ] || [ "$USER" = "root" ] ; then

        PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games/bin:${ROOTPATH}"

else

        PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:${PATH}"

fi

export PATH

unset ROOTPATH



if [ -n "${BASH_VERSION}" ] ; then

        # Newer bash ebuilds include /etc/bash/bashrc which will setup PS1

        # including color.  We leave out color here because not all

        # terminals support it.

        if [ -f /etc/bash/bashrc ] ; then

                # Bash login shells run only /etc/profile

                # Bash non-login shells run only /etc/bash/bashrc

                # Since we want to run /etc/bash/bashrc regardless, we source it 

                # from here.  It is unfortunate that there is no way to do 

                # this *after* the user's .bash_profile runs (without putting 

                # it in the user's dot-files), but it shouldn't make any 

                # difference.

                . /etc/bash/bashrc

        else

                PS1='\u@\h \w \$ '

        fi

else

        # Setup a bland default prompt.  Since this prompt should be useable

        # on color and non-color terminals, as well as shells that don't

        # understand sequences such as \h, don't put anything special in it.

        PS1="${USER:-$(whoami 2>/dev/null)}@$(uname -n 2>/dev/null) \$ "

fi



for sh in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do

        [ -r "$sh" ] && . "$sh"

done

unset sh

If I do "source /etc/profile" all the paths highlited in the /etc/profile (including regular-user paths) are added to root's PATH, but again, as soon as I exit root and become root again, this change is gone.

remove this "${ROOTPATH}" and change it to

The $PATH should not be needed for this one ?? it might depending on other files like bash.bashrc

Code:



PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games/bin:$PATH"

Then reboot

Quote:

Originally Posted by John VV (Post 4858807)

remove this "${ROOTPATH}" and change it to

The $PATH should not be needed for this one ?? it might depending on other files like bash.bashrc

Code:



PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games/bin:$PATH"

Then reboot

I didn't add "${ROOTPATH}" as it was already there, all I did is squeeze /usr/games/bin before it. I am thus reluctant to remove this in case of breakage? I have no .bashrc in my home directory, nor in my root directory. The only bashrc file is in /etc/bash/bashrc and this one does not have any PATH variables in it. Here:

Code:

# /etc/bash/bashrc

#

# This file is sourced by all *interactive* bash shells on startup,

# including some apparently interactive shells such as scp and rcp

# that can't tolerate any output.  So make sure this doesn't display

# anything or bad things will happen !





# Test for an interactive shell.  There is no need to set anything

# past this point for scp and rcp, and it's important to refrain from

# outputting anything in those cases.

if [[ $- != *i* ]] ; then

        # Shell is non-interactive.  Be done now!

        return

fi



# Bash won't get SIGWINCH if another process is in the foreground.

# Enable checkwinsize so that bash will check the terminal size when

# it regains control.  #65623

# http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/~chet/bash/FAQ (E11)

shopt -s checkwinsize



# Enable history appending instead of overwriting.  #139609

shopt -s histappend



# Change the window title of X terminals 

case ${TERM} in

        xterm*|rxvt*|Eterm|aterm|kterm|gnome*|interix)

                PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/#$HOME/~}\007"'

                ;;

        screen)

                PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033_${USER}@${HOSTNAME%%.*}:${PWD/#$HOME/~}\033\\"'

                ;;

esac



use_color=false



# Set colorful PS1 only on colorful terminals.

# dircolors --print-database uses its own built-in database

# instead of using /etc/DIR_COLORS.  Try to use the external file

# first to take advantage of user additions.  Use internal bash

# globbing instead of external grep binary.

safe_term=${TERM//[^[:alnum:]]/?}  # sanitize TERM

match_lhs=""

[[ -f ~/.dir_colors  ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(<~/.dir_colors)"

[[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] && match_lhs="${match_lhs}$(</etc/DIR_COLORS)"

[[ -z ${match_lhs}    ]] \

        && type -P dircolors >/dev/null \

        && match_lhs=$(dircolors --print-database)

[[ $'\n'${match_lhs} == *$'\n'"TERM "${safe_term}* ]] && use_color=true



if ${use_color} ; then

        # Enable colors for ls, etc.  Prefer ~/.dir_colors #64489

        if type -P dircolors >/dev/null ; then

                if [[ -f ~/.dir_colors ]] ; then

                        eval $(dircolors -b ~/.dir_colors)

                elif [[ -f /etc/DIR_COLORS ]] ; then

                        eval $(dircolors -b /etc/DIR_COLORS)

                fi

        fi



        if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then

                PS1='\[\033[01;31m\]\h\[\033[01;34m\] \W \$\[\033[00m\] '

        else

                PS1='\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[01;34m\] \w \$\[\033[00m\] '

        fi



        alias ls='ls --color=auto'

        alias grep='grep --colour=auto'

        alias egrep='egrep --colour=auto'

        alias fgrep='fgrep --colour=auto'

else

        if [[ ${EUID} == 0 ]] ; then

                # show root@ when we don't have colors

                PS1='\u@\h \W \$ '

        else

                PS1='\u@\h \w \$ '

        fi

fi



# Try to keep environment pollution down, EPA loves us.

unset use_color safe_term match_lhs

then add it to the one below
and log in as a normal user
( mind you my experience is with rhel and that family of OS's )

Copy /etc/bash/bashrc into your user and root folders as .bashrc. It serves as a template that you can edit to suit the your preferences when working as user or as root. There is no need to remove any changes you have made to /etc/bash/bashrc. The next time you have an update to bash, /etc/bash/bashrc will be overwritten. The .bashrc in you home or root folder will not be touched by an upgrade.

To make your desired PATH permanent, add this to your .bashrc:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/games/bin

If you want to add another folder to the PATH, just add a colon and the next folder in the PATH.

Once you are done editing .bashrc, save it then run source .bashrc to immediately see the change.

Hi,

I agree with bigrigdriver's suggestion and I advise users to setup '.bashrc & .bash_profile for their users. Look at this LQ post #5 which shows you how to use '.bashrc' and '.bash_profile for your user. In my example you source '~/.bashrc' via '~/.bash_profile'. Modify the sample '.bashrc' to suit your needs.

HTH!

I dug into the Gentoo docs and came to a few realizations: $PATH variables are not typically stored in /etc/profile, but rather specified in files in the /etc/env.d directory which is then parsed with env-update and catenated into /etc/profile.env. Second, my specific problem, and the reason I was trying to edit the paths in the first place, was solved when I added myself to a group. (Stupid me! This should have been the first thing that I checked..)

And finally, there is a small discrepancy in that the $ROOTPATH in a no-x environment differs from the $ROOTPATH in my X environment (the one in the no-x environment holds more directories than the one in the X environment). But this is a really, really, really small problem as root is authorized to do anything, anyway - so now I'm marking this thread as solved. Thanks for all your help, I really do appreciate it.