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@nex3
Created March 16, 2018 00:45
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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

  1. 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".
  1. Click "Advanced system settings".
  2. Click "Environment Variables".
  3. Under "System Variables", find the PATH variable, select it, and click "Edit". If there is no PATH variable, click "New".
  4. Add your directory to the beginning of the variable value followed by ; (a semicolon). For example, if the value was C:\Windows\System32, change it to C:\Users\Me\bin;C:\Windows\System32.
  5. Click "OK".
  6. Restart your terminal.

Mac OS X

  1. Open the .bash_profile file in your home directory (for example, /Users/your-user-name/.bash_profile) in a text editor.
  2. Add export PATH="your-dir:$PATH" to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add.
  3. Save the .bash_profile file.
  4. Restart your terminal.

Linux

  1. Open the .bashrc file in your home directory (for example, /home/your-user-name/.bashrc) in a text editor.
  2. Add export PATH="your-dir:$PATH" to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add.
  3. Save the .bashrc file.
  4. Restart your terminal.
@dwayneheasley
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worked perfectly, many thanks
@getaway shootout

@ShengzheXu
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For those using Z-Shell (zsh) don't forget it's .zshrc instead of .bash_profile

Hero! Thanks.

@correiamath
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correiamath commented Feb 3, 2024

SUMMARY

(For who came from LunarVim doc)

Step 1: Open your .bashrc file

Use a text editor of your choice to open the .bashrc file. In this example, I'll use the nano editor:

nano /home/your-user-name/.bashrc

Step 2: Add the directory to the PATH

In the opened .bashrc file, go to the last line and add the following:

export PATH=/home/your-user-name/.local/bin:$PATH

Step 3: Save and exit

After adding the line to the file, save your changes by pressing Ctrl + O, then press Enter. To exit the editor, press Ctrl + X.

Now, the specified directory is added to your PATH. This means that executable programs in the specified directory can be executed from any location in the terminal without needing to provide the full path.

@dnice1987
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