How to add a directory to the PATH?

Question

How do I add a directory to the $PATH in Ubuntu and make the changes permanent?

Answer 1

Using ~/.profile to set $PATH

A path set in .bash_profile will only be set in a bash login shell (bash -l). If you put your path in .profile it will be available to your complete desktop session. That means even metacity will use it.

For example ~/.profile:

if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
  PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"
fi

Btw, you can check the PATH variable of a process by looking at its environment in /proc/[pid]/environ. (replace [pid] with the number from ps axf)

Note:

bash as a login shell doesn't parse .profile if either .bash_profile or .bash_login exists. From man bash :

it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable.

See the answers below for information about .pam_environment, or .bashrc for interactive non-login shells, or set the value globally for all users by putting a script into /etc/profile.d/ or use /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ to affect the display managers session.

Answer 2

Edit .bashrc in your home directory and add the following line:

export PATH="/path/to/dir:$PATH"

You will need to source your .bashrc or logout/login (or restart the terminal) for the changes to take effect. To source your .bashrc, simply type

$ source ~/.bashrc

Answer 3

The recommended place to define permanent, system-wide environment variables applying to all users is in:

/etc/environment

(which is where the default PATH is defined)

This will work in desktop or console, gnome-terminal or TTY, rain or shine ;)

• To edit, press Alt+F2 and type:

  gksudo gedit /etc/environment
  

  (or open the file using sudo in your favorite text editor)

To effect changes, run . /etc/environment. Since this file is just a simple script it will run and assign the new path to the PATH environment variable. To check run env and see the PATH value in the listing.

Related:

• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

Answer 4

I think the canonical way in Ubuntu is:

• create a new file under /etc/profile.d/

  sudo vi /etc/profile.d/SCRIPT_NAME.sh
  

• add there:

  export PATH="YOUR_PATH_WITHOUT_TRAILING_SLASH:$PATH"
  

• and give it execute permission

  sudo chmod a+x /etc/profile.d/SCRIPT_NAME.sh
  

Answer 5

For complete newbies (like I am) who are more comfortable with GUI:

1. Open your $HOME folder.
2. Go to View → Show Hidden Files or press Ctrl + H.
3. Right click on .profile and click on Open With Text Editor.
4. Scroll to the bottom and add PATH="$PATH:/my/path/foo".
5. Save.
6. Log out and log back in to apply changes (let Ubuntu actually load .profile).

Answer 6

For persistent environment variables available to particular users only. I highly recommend Ubuntu official documentation.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

Referring to documentation above, I have setup my Android SDK path-tools by:

1. creating ~/.pam_environment file in home directory.
2. the content of which is PATH DEFAULT=${PATH}:~/android-sdk-linux/tools.
3. additional custom user path can be added by separating paths with colon (:).
4. this requires re-login, which means you need to log-out and log-in back to desktop environment.

Answer 7

Put that line in your ~/.bashrc file.

It gets sourced whenever you open a terminal

EDIT: Based on the comments below, for a more general setting that will apply to all shells (including when you hit Alt-F2 in Unity), add the line to your ~/.profile file. Probably shouldn't do both however, as the path will be added twice to your PATH environment if you open a terminal.

Answer 8

To set it system wide, append the line export PATH=/path/you're/adding:$PATH to the end of /etc/profile.

To add the directory for only the logged-in user, append the same line to ~/.bash_profile.

Answer 9

Adding it to .bashrc will work but I think the more traditional way of setting up your path variables is in .bash_profile by adding the following lines.

PATH=$PATH:/my/path/foo
export PATH

According to this thread it appears as though Ubuntu's behavior is slightly different than RedHat and clones.

Answer 10

sudo vi /etc/profile.d/SCRIPT_NAME.sh

add there

export PATH=YOUR_PATH_WITHOUT_TRAILING_SLASH:$PATH

Answer 11

In terminal, cd to the_directory_you_want_to_add_in_the_path

echo "export PATH=$(pwd):\${PATH}" >> ~/.bashrc

This wasn't my idea. I found this way to export path at this blog here.

Answer 12

Whenever I "install" my folder of BASH scripts, I follow the pattern of the test for a $HOME/bin folder that's in most .profile files in recent versions of Ubuntu. I set a test that looks like

if [ -d "/usr/scripts" ]; then
   PATH="/usr/scripts:$PATH"
fi

It works just about 100% of the time, and leaves me free to change it in a GUI text editor with a quick "Replace all" should I ever decide to move /scripts somewhere closer to my $HOME folder. I haven't done so in 6 Ubuntu installs, but there's "always tomorrow." S

BZT

Answer 13

Open your terminal, type gedit .profile and insert the following:

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"
fi

 #the following line add Bin where you dont have a Bin folder on your $HOME
    PATH="$PATH:/home/mongo/Documents/mongodb-linux-i686-2.2.2/bin"

Close and open terminal, it should be working.

Answer 14

The recommended way to edit your PATH is from /etc/environment file

Example output of /etc/environment:

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

For example, to add the new path of /home/username/mydir

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/home/username/mydir"

---

System-wide environment variables

A suitable file for environment variable settings that affect the system as a whole (rather than just a particular user) is /etc/environment. An alternative is to create a file for the purpose in the /etc/profile.d directory.

/etc/environment

This file is specifically meant for system-wide environment variable settings. It is not a script file, but rather consists of assignment expressions, one per line.

Note: Variable expansion does not work in /etc/environment.

More info can be found here: EnvironmentVariables

Answer 15

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

There is all you need to know. I found out that a lot of the input here was incorrect or at least the method was not suggested. This is a great piece of information that will let you figure out where to modify your environment variable based on the reason you are doing it and exactly how to do it without screwing everything up (like I did following some of the aforementioned bad advice).

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

Answer 16

For Ubuntu edit the ~/.bashrc and add the following line.

. ~/.bash_profile

Then edit your .bash_profile as you need.....

Answer 17

Put it to your ~/.bashrc or whatevershell you use rc (or to beforementioned ~/.profile) AND ~/.xsessionrc so it will also work in X (outside shell).

Answer 18

Even if system script do not use this, in any of the cases that one wants to add a path (e.g., $HOME/bin) to the PATH environment variable, one should use

PATH="${PATH:+${PATH}:}$HOME/bin"

for appending (instead of PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin") and

PATH="$HOME/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}"

for prepending (instead of PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH")

This avoids the spurious leading/trailing colon when $PATH is initially empty, which can have undesired effects.

See e.g. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/162891/append-to-path-like-variable-without-creating-leading-colon-if-unset