I have no more PATH statement, but before I accidentally nuked it, I saved it to a file called path. How could I redirect the contents of this file to my PATH statement? Is this even possible? I know I could do cat path (my filename) and just copy and paste it to PATH= but I do not want to do it that way. TIA!

For adding to every users path, find the line in /etc/profile that says something like

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC

& on the line just above it type

PATH=$PATH:/THEN/YOUR:/CUSTOM/PATHS

each new path must be separated by a :

For individual users paths, type

PATH=$PATH:/THEN/YOUR:/CUSTOM/PATHS

into $HOME/.bash_profile & on the next line put:

export PATH

yea I know that. But what I want to do is redirect a file which has content like this...


/bin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

to my actual path statement;from the file.

You can do this (assuming you use the bash shell):
EDIT:
Keep in mind, the contents of that file needs to be exactly the same as the PATH was previously. For instance, if it was created like so:
If you did any sort of processing on it (like separating each directory onto its own line), then you'll have to reassemble it before the command I gave would work. It might be as simple as piping the cat through a tr command, or it could be very complex. It just depends on how/if you modified the data in that file to be something other than just a plain vanilla PATH format.

ah ha! I was missing the () around cat path_file

THX! It worked (but I had to take out the export).

The export shouldn't cause you any problems. I'm not sure by your response whether it did, or if you were intentionally removing it for your setup.

In fact, I tried that command sequence on my own shell before posting it without any problems. So I assume you took out the export to prevent that PATH from being inherited by child processes.

If you did have a problem with it, I'd be interested to know what it was.

Just to be clear, you did answer my ?

however, when I put exactly what you had type

export PATH=$(cat path_file)

it did not work, but when I

PATH=$(cat path_file)

it worked fine, and then of course I was able to export it. Weird huh? I am using FC2 if that matters any.

Well, what I was getting at was: how do you know the export didn't work? Was an error displayed? Was the wrong value shown when you did the echo? Was there some other indication?

I was just saying that the export command worked without a problem on my system (I usually try out commands before I suggest them). Essentially, what happens with that command is this:

• The text inside the $() is interpreted as a command to execute
• The command and the surrounding $() are replaced with the command's output
• The command's output is assigned to the PATH variable
• The export causes PATH to become an environment variable

So, to my knowledge, the export command should not have any influence on the assignment to PATH. If it's not working, then that might mean there is a case I should be aware of, or possibly a flaw in my logic.

It's not a huge deal. You say it's working if you just add another step; inconvenient, but workable. I'm just curious about it is all.

it returned an error of "command not found" beleive it or not.

Oh, wait, Duh, I think I just realized what it was. Since there was nothing in my PATH at the time I ran this, and I didn't type in the full path to the export statement, that is why it gave me command not found. Duh!

THX!