Setting PATH on UNIX or LINUX

PATH is just an Environment variable like any other in a UNIX SHELL. You almost never want to replace the default value of PATH because if you're not careful your shell will forget the location of such useful commands as LS and CP. What you almost want to do is append to PATH like this (in SH, BASH or ZSH if you use one of the CSHs you're on your own.

 > export PATH=$PATH:/your/new/directory

The usual place to add directories to your PATH such that the change is permanent is in the file that your shell executes when you login. Depending on what shell you use this'll be your ZSHRC, BASHRC, TCSHRC etc.

You can edit this file and add the above command and come back and edit the list of directories any time.

After you've edited it your shell must reread the script to pick up the changes. In ZSH this is done with the dot command like SH

 . ~/.zshrc

Or with source like CSH

 source ~/.zshrc

Note the ~/ which always points to your home directory in all shells I know of.

If you're lazy like me, you can permanently add a directory to your path from the command line like this:

 > echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/new/directory' >> ~/.zshrc
 > source ~/.zshrc

 

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ZSHRC the last file read when U login to the zsh session~

.zshrc, the last file that ZSH reads when you open an interactive session. This includes your login session and any others such as an SSH session or an XTerm session. This is almost always found in your home directory.

.zshrc is the usual place to modify your environment permanently, such as adding directories to your PATH.

For more information take a look at the Man page for ZSH

 man zsh

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The Z SHELL, a CLI program on Unix that serves as the interface between the user and the rest of the OS. See also BASH and TCSH.

Why zsh?

    * tab-completion (see ZSHCompletion)
    * An awesome prompt with fancy colors:

PS1='%{^[[01;36m%}yourname@%m] %{^[[00m%}'

RPROMPT='%{^[[01;32m%}%~%{^[[00m%}'

which looks like:

yourname@machine]                       ~/your_path

note:

    * ^[ is really the esc charachter
    * 01;36 is light cyan
    * 01;32 is light green
    * see ANSIColors

Misc info (add to ~/.zshrc)

Color Prompt - color_path %key_history)

PS1=$'%{\e[0;34m%}%B%~%b%{\e[0m%} %%%!%) '

XTerm Title - user@hostname: path

precmd () {print -Pn "\e]0;%n@%m: %~\a"}

(see man zshmisc)

    *  %n - username
    *  %m - machine name
    *  %M - full machine name
    *  %~ - path with /home/user -> ~
    *  %B - start bold
    *  %b - end bold