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I am very new to linux and am catching on fairly quickly. But the folks I work with who are old UNIX folks (all 50 + years old) use lingo that confuses me.
I tried to run a command with one of them over my shoulder.
They said "You do not have to type all that it is in your path".
What the heck does that mean? I dont have to specify a path to a file if it is in my path? How do I know what is in my path? and what exactly is my path?
PATH is an environment variable used to store a list of directories in which the shell looks for commands (executables). To see the list of directories listed in your PATH, run "echo $PATH" in a terminal (without quotes). FWIW, Windows also has an environment variable called PATH.
Your $PATH is basically a list of directories that the command line will look for when you type a one word command. For example, if /usr/bin is in your PATH and there is a program /usr/bin/firefox, you can just type firefox because it will look in /usr/bin for that program. If /usr/bin is not in your path and you type firefox, then it will return a "command not found" type error.
Well I thank you fine folks again, not only have I found a new interest in this open source community for its functionality but also because the people involved are so quick to help and share knowledge! Thanks again
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