Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- nix:pathvars [2020/01/06 15:37] – kauffman
+++ nix:pathvars [2020/01/06 16:00] (current) – kauffman
@@ Line 36: / Line 36: @@
 </code>
-==== Intro the the PATH variable ====
+===== Intro the the PATH variable =====
 Generally your search path for binaries will look something like the below.
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
-===== Manipulating the PATH variable =====
+===== Setting up an Example =====
 Your shell will allow you manipulate the order in which these paths appear. It's as simple as setting a variable.
@@ Line 76: / Line 76: @@
 </code>
-We will place our example script that echo's 'Hello World!' into ''%%~/bin/hello%%'' and make it executable.
+We will place our example script that echo's 'Hello World!' into ''%%~/bin/hello%%''
 <code>
 #!/bin/bash
@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 </code>
+and make it executable.
 <code>
-chmod +x ~/bin/hello
+user@linux1:~$ chmod +x ~/bin/hello
 </code>
+Now that we have our executable ''%%hello%%'' we'd like to be able to call it without prepending the path like this: ''%%~/bin/hello%%''
+As you may have guessed we will want to add (pre or postpend) ''%%~/bin%%'' to our ''%%PATH%%'' variable.
+===== Manipulating the PATH variable =====
+<code>
+$ export PATH=$PATH:~/bin
+</code>
+To test we will need the shell to reevaluate $PATH.
+<code>
+$ hash -r
+</code>
+Now we can see that ''%%hello%%'' is in our path and we can execute it without the full path.
+<code>
+user@linux1:~$ which hello
+/home/user/bin/hello
+user@linux1:~$ hello
+Hello World!
+</code>
+===== Making the change permanent =====
+Add the following line to a file called ''%%~/.bash_profile%%''.
+   export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin
+This will postpend our custom path to the search path every time we launch a bash login shell. You can replace ''%%$HOME/bin%%'' with any path you wish and add as many paths as you want at once.
+If you'd like to prepend just move your path in front of ''%%$PATH%%''. Just make sure each path is separated by a colon ''%%:%%''.
+    export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH