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    ~ will be expanded (at the time of that assignment) if you run PATH=~/bin:$PATH. The OP must have run something like PATH='~/bin':$PATH. Commented Apr 11, 2024 at 14:53
  • I had export PATH="~/bin:$PATH" in ~/.bashrc. After fixing it to export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" command find `echo $PATH | tr ':' ' '` -lname /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice started working without showing error. (IFS=:; find $PATH -lname /opt/openoffice4/program/soffice) is also working. Thanks! Commented Apr 11, 2024 at 18:05
  • @StéphaneChazelas with PATH=~/bin:$PATH also everything is fine, but I think it is better to use quotes around $PATH like export PATH=~/bin:"$PATH" for case if $PATH contains or will contain spaces. Commented Apr 11, 2024 at 18:11
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    @AntonSamokat, we quote expansions to prevent the splitting and globbing that happens otherwise in list contexts. Note that the splitting part is not on "spaces" but on characters of $IFS (which only happens to contain space by default). A scalar variable assignment is not one of those list contexts. PATH=~/bin:$PATH is a scalar variable assignment. And in bash, in export PATH=~/bin:$PATH the argument to export is also treated as a scalar assignment, so there won't be any split+glob. $PATH is already exported though so the export is superfluous. Quoting $PATH won't harm. ~ does Commented Apr 11, 2024 at 20:13
  • @StéphaneChazelas I've found related question about this: Expansion of a shell variable and effect of glob and split on it Commented Apr 13, 2024 at 17:33