Adding a new entry to the PATH variable in ZSH
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.
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' $path)
# export to sub-processes (make it inherited by child processes)
export PATH
For me that's a very neat feature which can be propagated to other variables. Example:
typeset -T LD_LIBRARY_PATH ld_library_path :
You can append to your PATH
in a minimal fashion. No need for
parentheses unless you're appending more than one element. It also
usually doesn't need quotes. So the simple, short way to append is:
path+=/some/new/bin/dir
This lower-case syntax is using path
as an array, yet also
affects its upper-case partner equivalent, PATH
(to which it is
"bound" via typeset
).
(Notice that no :
is needed/wanted as a separator.)
Common interactive usage
Then the common pattern for testing a new script/executable becomes:
path+=$PWD/.
# or
path+=$PWD/bin
Common config usage
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)
).
Related tidbits
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
PATH pre-populated
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:
- Why and where the $PATH env variable is set?
- Where is the source of $PATH? I cannot find it in .zshrc