I'm using zsh terminal, and I'm trying to add a new entry (/home/david/pear/bin) to the PATH variable. I don't see a reference to the PATH variable in my ~/.zshrc file, but doing echo $PATH returns:
/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
So I know that the path variable is being set somewhere. Where is the PATH variable set / modified for the zsh terminal?
Actually, using ZSH allows you to use special mapping of environment variables. So you can simply do:
# append
path+=('/home/david/pear/bin')
# or prepend
path=('/home/david/pear/bin' $path)
# and don't forget to export to make it inherited by child processes
export PATH
For me that's a very neat feature which can be propagated to other variables. Example:
typeset -T LD_LIBRARY_PATH ld_library_path
This is what man zshbuiltins reports about -T.
-T [ scalar[=value] array[=(value ...)] [ sep ] ]
This flag has a different meaning when used with -f; see below. Otherwise
the -T option requires zero, two, or three argu ments to be present.
With no arguments, the list of parameters created in this fashion is shown.
With two or three arguments, the first two are the name of a scalar and of
an array parameter (in that order) that will be tied together in the manner
of $PATH and $path. The optional third argument is a single-character
separator which will be used to join the elements of the array to form
the scalar; if absent, a colon is used, as with $PATH. Only the first
character of the separator is significant;
any remaining characters are ignored.
Multibyte characters are not yet supported.
~/.zshrc is sourced after .profile, and overwrites everything in .profile. Took a while pulling my hair to figure it out.
-x and leave only unique values in a variable with -U, colon is assumed by default, so it can be: typeset -TUx PATH path
path and PATH, both are separate entities?
typeset -T allows to tie PATH and path together in a special way that internally ZSH manages array variable path and reflects its contents in PATH as a scalar.Here, add this line to .zshrc:
export PATH=/home/david/pear/bin:$PATH
EDIT: This does work, but ony's answer above is better, as it takes advantage of the structured interface ZSH provides for variables like $PATH. This approach is standard for bash, but as far as I know, there is no reason to use it when ZSH provides better alternatives.
PATH="/home/david/pear/bin:/usr/bin:etc" to PATH=/home/david/pear/bin:/usr/bin:etc for it to stay in zshrc.
export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/dirYou can append to your PATH in a minimal fashion. No need for
parentheses unless you're appending more than one element. It also
usually doesn't need quotes. So the simple, short way to append is:
path+=/some/new/bin/dir
This lower-case syntax is using path as an array, yet also
affects its upper-case partner equivalent, PATH (to which it is
"bound" via typeset).
(Notice that no : is needed/wanted as a separator.)
Then the common pattern for testing a new script/executable becomes:
path+=$PWD/.
# or
path+=$PWD/bin
You can sprinkle path settings around your .zshrc (as above) and it will naturally lead to the earlier listed settings taking precedence (though you may occasionally still want to use the "prepend" form path=(/some/new/bin/dir $path)).
Treating path this way (as an array) also means: no need to do a
rehash to get the newly pathed commands to be found.
Also take a look at vared path as a dynamic way to edit path
(and other things).
You may only be interested in path for this question, but since
we're talking about exports and arrays, note that
arrays generally cannot be exported.
You can even prevent PATH from taking on duplicate entries
(refer to
this
and this):
typeset -U path
The reason your path already has some entries in it is due to your system shell files setting path for you. This is covered in a couple other posts:
path+='my/path' # for fun. It’s obvious if you have spaces, but not so much if you have comments.
path. A preceding : is required for PATH, as follows in .zshrc PATH+=:/Users/path/to/my/folder
exec zsh because I work with plugins from oh-my-zsh.Everytime I do exec the path gets bigger. Should I "default" the path from time to time?
typeset -aU pathone liner, without opening ~/.zshrc file
echo -n 'export PATH=~/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
or
echo -n 'export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
To see the effect, do source ~/.zshrc in the same tab or open a new tab
Added path to ~/.zshrc
sudo vi ~/.zshrc
add new path
export PATH="$PATH:[NEW_DIRECTORY]/bin"
Update ~/.zshrc
Save ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
Check PATH
echo $PATH
Bash way.OPTION 1: Add this line to ~/.zshrc:
export "PATH=$HOME/pear/bin:$PATH"
After that you need to run source ~/.zshrc in order your changes to take affect OR close this window and open a new one
OPTION 2: execute it inside the terminal console to add this path only to the current terminal window session. When you close the window/session, it will be lost.
If you are on macOS (I'm on Monterey 12.3.1), you may have been pulling your hair like I did metaphorically. These instructions above all worked for me within the terminal session, but I could never get it to persist no matter what I did with export. Moreover, I couldn't find the .zshrc anywhere.
Turns out Apple does it differently. The file you need to edit is etc/paths. You can simply sudo nano /etc/paths and add your path in a new line. Then simply restart terminal and voila.
etc/paths existed. It's much easier to use than all the export PATH stuff I've used in the past.
I'm on Monterey 12.4 and the only way I could change the path was using the helper function. Editing text files in nano did diddly squat
# append
path+=('/foo/bar/yourpath')
# export to sub-processes
export PATH
for me PATH=$PATH:/path/to/file/bin
then export PATH worked.
to check echo $PATH . other solutions are adding the path temporarily.
A native zsh way is to identify your install directory and create a file from where you will load your PATH modifications:
touch $ZSH/custom/usrenv.zsh
And add the new PATH directories like this inside that usrenv.zsh:
export PATH=$PATH:/home/myself/.foo/bin:/usr/local/bar/bin
The custom directory files *.zsh are sourced by default by the .oh-my-zsh.sh init script, as this snippet taken from it shows:
if [[ -z "$ZSH_CUSTOM" ]]; then
ZSH_CUSTOM="$ZSH/custom"
fi
...
for config_file ("$ZSH_CUSTOM"/*.zsh(N)); do
source "$config_file"
done
unset config_file
To try to help I will show you how to do the process using a BASH script.
IMPORTANT: The "PATH" environment variable must receive in its configuration a folder (eg: "/home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh") and not a binary or script directly (eg: "/home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh/my_bash_script").
Run the following command to make "my_bash_script" script executable...
chmod +x /home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh/my_bash_script
Run the following command to temporarily add the BASH script directory to your "PATH"...
export PATH=$PATH:/home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh # Logged in as your user!
Add this line to the end of your ".zshrc" file so that it's automatically added each time you start a terminal session...
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh' >> ~/.zshrc
To apply the changes immediately, run...
source ~/.zshrc # Logged in as your user!
Next, you'll need to ensure that the BASH script have the correct permissions...
chown -R <YOUR_USER>:<YOUR_USER> /home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh
chmod -R 700 /home/<YOUR_USER>/.scripts/zsh
You're Done! 😎
The lower case path variable didn't work for me. When I opened up my .zshrc there was already an EXPORT PATH= "$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH", where $PATH is the current path variable set on the machine. All I did was append to the string adding a colon in front of the path. e.g. export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH:$HOME/go/bin"`
Anything after the : are the new paths to be appended.
The best way to keep things simple is writing a function and that will only add to your path if given dir exists.
# To avoid duplicates in your $PATH, you can utilize zsh's array features:
# typeset -aU path: This ensures that the path array (which mirrors the $PATH
# environment variable) only contains unique elements.
typeset -aU path
# Function to append the directory to the path array.
export_to_path() {
local dir="$1"
if [[ -d "$dir" ]]; then
# Append the directory to the path array.
path=("$dir" $path)
}
# Then every time you want to append any path to $PATH just call this function with the path argument.
export_to_path "$HOMEBREW_PREFIX/opt/[email protected]/bin"
to verify your new directory has been added correctly, you can use
print -l $path
thanks to the fact that its type is known to be an array
You can add new file to /etc/paths.d and you can add your path that file. Don't forget to restart your terminal.
**#create new file to /etc/paths.d**
touch /etc/paths.d/[filename]
**#open created file and add your path**
vi /etc/paths.d/[filename]
**#save and close file and restart terminal**
.zshenv, not in.zshrc...