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

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17 Answers

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). E.g. use grep -z "^PATH" /proc/[pid]/environ

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.

13

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

9

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, open the terminal and type:

  sudoedit /etc/environment

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

To make it work without rebooting, run . /etc/environment or source /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:

• EnvironmentVariables - Community Help Wiki

8

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

1

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).

6

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

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.

0

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.

6

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.

5

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.

0

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.

0

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

add there

export PATH=YOUR_PATH_WITHOUT_TRAILING_SLASH:$PATH

2

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"

Then, reboot your PC.

---

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

2

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

0

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.

0

Even if system scripts 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.

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).

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

. ~/.bash_profile

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

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