changing /etc/environment did not affect my environment variables

Question

I'm very new to Ubuntu so please bare with me. I'm trying to install Euler expert system following those instructions
to add the environment variable I edited my /etc/environment to become as follows:

 PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:
/home/mohammad/Desktop/eye"
 EYE_HOME = "/home/mohammad/Desktop/eye"

but when I use printenv PATH I don't see the new directory added to my path.

what am I doing wrong here ?

Answer 1

I don't know the reason why PATH wasn't changed (after relogin), but

EYE_HOME = "/home/mohammad/Desktop/eye"
--------^-^

those spaces prevent EYE_HOME to be set.

It should be noted that /etc/environment is not a script file, but a kind of assignment file that is read by PAM. OTOH such spaces are not allowed in script files like /etc/profile and ~/.profile either.

If you use a script file, you need to export the variables as shown in Avinash Raj's answer.

Please note that while ~/.bashrc works if you start your program from a terminal window, it may not work if you start it from the graphical environment, since it's not sourced by the display manager.

Answer 2

gedit ~/.bashrc

After that add the below lines,

export EYE_HOME="/home/mohammad/Desktop/eye"
export PATH=$PATH:$EYE_HOME

Save the file and sourec it,

source ~/.bashrc

Answer 3

You want to edit your .bashrc file in your home directory.

When you edit the path you should include :$PATH on the end so you don't replace the current path.

Answer 4

You can try these two files too for system wide configuration:

• /etc/profile
• /etc/bashrc

For user wide configuration:

• $HOME/.profile
• $HOME/.bashrc

Just append the variables as you have done on /etc/environment. But you will have to login and logout (or run the proper reload). Maybe by login and logout /etc/environment would work but I am not sure.