Hello all,
I am a begginner in linux using redhat. I have installed a software and set the variables in the .bashrc file to avoid setting them everytime I would like to run te software. Now I have installed a new software and would like to do the same thing in the .bashrc file. How can I add the path to the new software directory without affecting the first software path.
Regards

kharnab,

Please paste whatever you have tried so far here.

If you want to set another variable, do the same thing which you did to set the variable before.

If you want to append path then append it in your ~/.bash_profile
Path in bold is appended new path.

The usual way to achieve what you want to do is the /etc/profile.d system. Each software that needs environmental variables set installs a *.sh script in that directory. When bash starts up a login shell it runs /etc/profile and /etc/profile runs (sources) all the /etc/profile.d/*.sh scripts. This has the advantage of modularising the configuration scripts so that /etc/profile itself does not need to be changed each time a new software is installed, upgraded or removed.

If you want to set the software environmental variables for one user only, rather than globally, you could implement something like the /etc/profile.d system in the home directory, with say a ~/.bashrc.d directory.