macOS bash shell - where does it set PATH?

[toddburch]

I want to modify my default PATH for the default shell in Terminal. Can't figure out where the .profile or _login files are on Tiger.

Thanks!

 

[robbieduncan]

By default your user doesn't have a .profile. The system one gets used. But if you add a .profile to your ~ directory then it'll get used...

 

[toddburch]

Thanks Robbie. Where's the system one?

 

[robbieduncan]

The bash man page indicates that it should be at /etc/profile

And it is I'd really not recommend changing it though

 

[toddburch]

Not going to change that one - just getting my head around unix. Thanks!

Todd

 

[toddburch]

Ah - it's not called .profile, but profile. Got it!

 

[yellow]

Introduction to Darwin: http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/index.ws


An excellent UNIX FAQ: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=40648

 

[toddburch]

Interesting. I installed JRUBY some time ago and its install modified /etc/profile to set an env. variable (JRUBY_HOME) and it modifies the path there to include its own bin path.

# System-wide .profile for sh(1)

JRUBY_HOME="/Users/toddburch/jruby-1.0.1"

PATH="/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:$JRUBY_HOME/bin"
export PATH

if [ "${BASH-no}" != "no" ]; then
        [ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
fi

Is that poor form?

 

[yellow]

Is that poor form?

Yes! Exceedingly poor form.

yellow$ more profile 
# System-wide .profile for sh(1)

if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
        eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
fi

if [ "${BASH-no}" != "no" ]; then
        [ -r /etc/bashrc ] && . /etc/bashrc
fi

Then in your ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile:

PATH=$PATH[COLOR="RoyalBlue"]:/usr/local/bin:/sw/bin:/sw/sbin:/Developer/Tools:/usr/X11R6/bin[/COLOR]
export PATH

Where the stuff in blue is the modified PATH.

 

[toddburch]

OK, thanks yellow. I'll digest this, and a bit of the bash syntax (I have a book) and fix things up accordingly.

Is that "path_helper" something you put together?

 

[yellow]

Nope. Default part of Leopard.

http://www.hmug.org/man/8/path_helper.php

 

[toddburch]

I see - that's why my Tiger man page didn't turn up anything!

 

[yellow]

I was afraid you might have Tiger, but figured not when I looked at your profile and saw that you had a fat MP. My bad.

 

[toddburch]

I'll eventually upgrade to leopard when some key software I use resolves the issues it has with Leopard.

 

[voodoojello]

Under Leopard, simply modify /etc/paths

 

[yellow]

Under Leopard, simply modify /etc/paths

That's bad form. There's no reason that every bash shell opened on the box has to have the paths that the user needs.