A $PATH de-duplicator for bash

deduplicate_path.bash

deduplicate_path () {
    IFS=':' read -r -a _path <<< "$PATH"
    _path_uniq=()
    for member in "${_path[@]}"; do
              found=0
              for u_member in "${_path_uniq[@]}"; do
                  if [ "$member" = "$u_member" ]; then
                            found=1
                            break;
                  fi
              done
              if ! [ "$found" -eq 1 ]; then
                  _path_uniq+=("$member")
              fi
    done
    local IFS=":"
    export PATH="${_path_uniq[*]}"
}

A lot of useful software uses the eval "$(prog init bash)" convention to manage your prompt, provide completions and do whatever. Altogether too frequently this code stuffs eg ~/.local/bin into your path for the umpteenth time. Drop this function into your .bashrc and call it at the end to reduce that down to a more sensible set of paths.