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Development Tools Console Foundations Environment and Redirection Environment Variables

Charles Strawn
Charles Strawn
3,462 Points
Posted by Charles Strawn
Charles Strawn
3,462 Points

PATH environment variables

Hello.

I have run into an issue with the console tool. It seems since this lesson I can't run any commands without exporting several PATH environment variables. This happens every time I start a new console session. So far, Treehouse support has not been able to resolve this issue.

Is there any way to permanently fix this issue? Every time I try to run a command, I get the following error: The command could not be located because '/usr/bin', '/bin', '/usr/sbin', etc. is not included in the PATH environment variable.

Thanks, Charles

1 Answer

Geoff Parsons
Geoff Parsons
11,679 Points

Absolutely. Depending on which shell you use (sh, bash, zsh, etc) there will be a corresponding "dot file" which you can set things like your PATH variable in. It gets loaded each time you open a new terminal. For bash you want to add lines to ~/.bashrc for zsh it will be ~/.zshrc. For example:

  export PATH=".:${HOME}/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"

There are many many other things you can do in these profiles as well but for just getting your PATH set that should be all you need.

Charles Strawn
Charles Strawn
3,462 Points
Charles Strawn
Charles Strawn
3,462 Points

Thanks Geoff!

Looks like the issue is resolved.

Geoff Parsons
Geoff Parsons
11,679 Points

Glad you got your issue resolved.

Be warned though, once you start tinkering with your "dot files" you'll get addicted. Next thing you know you'll be tweaking your prompt and setting aliases for common tasks. :)