The PATH
is an important concept when working on the command line. It's a list
of directories that tell your operating system where to look for programs, so
that you can just write script
instead of /home/me/bin/script
or
C:\Users\Me\bin\script
. But different operating systems have different ways to
add a new directory to it:
Windows
- The first step depends which version of Windows you're using:
- If you're using Windows 8 or 10, press the Windows key, then search for and select "System (Control Panel)".
- If you're using Windows 7, right click the "Computer" icon on the desktop and click "Properties".
- Click "Advanced system settings".
- Click "Environment Variables".
- Under "System Variables", find the
PATH
variable, select it, and click "Edit". If there is noPATH
variable, click "New". - Add your directory to the beginning of the variable value followed by
;
(a semicolon). For example, if the value wasC:\Windows\System32
, change it toC:\Users\Me\bin;C:\Windows\System32
. - Click "OK".
- Restart your terminal.
Mac OS X
- Open the
.bash_profile
file in your home directory (for example,/Users/your-user-name/.bash_profile
) in a text editor. - Add
export PATH="your-dir:$PATH"
to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add. - Save the
.bash_profile
file. - Restart your terminal.
Linux
- Open the
.bashrc
file in your home directory (for example,/home/your-user-name/.bashrc
) in a text editor. - Add
export PATH="your-dir:$PATH"
to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add. - Save the
.bashrc
file. - Restart your terminal.
I would just like to say that you should consider using
export PATH="$PATH:your-dir"
instead. This will append the new path to the variable. Adding the absolute path to the beginning of the file will make the system search that directory first every time. This is not recommended as it can cause problems with system programs and it adds unnecessary delay.