Adding a new entry to the PATH variable in ZSH

user_1266661 0
Viewed 495461

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?

zsh ubuntu linux
10 Answers

  1. Added path to ~/.zshrc

    sudo vi ~/.zshrc

    add new path 

    export PATH="$PATH:[NEW_DIRECTORY]/bin"

  2. Update ~/.zshrc

    Save ~/.zshrc

    source ~/.zshrc

  3. Check PATH

    echo $PATH

user_18084170

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.

user_13151740

for me PATH=$PATH:/path/to/file/bin then export PATH worked. to check echo $PATH . other solutions are adding the path temporarily.

user_115584680

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
user_44634450

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.

user_3198050

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

user_2421890
Related