export path to $PATH via shell script

Herbert Qerbert

6/2/24, 4:15 PM

Is there some best practice of adding a path to $PATH via a shell script permanently via a shell script and have it accessible? I believe I have only seen temporary solutions, via export PATH=$PATH:<path/to/add> but suggested solutions like

echo "export PATH=\"<path/to/add>:\$PATH\"" >> ~/.bashrc

seem to add a "export PATH..." line every time the script is called. I am looking for something like this:

<install.sh> 
#! /bin/sh

new_path="/foo/bar"
echo $PATH

# set path variable
updatePath($PATH, new_path) <---- how to do this

#load path variable in current script
source ~/.bashrc 

echo "updated path": 
echo $PATH

expecting the following output of running ./install.sh:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin
updated path: 
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/foo/bar

Any working solutions or best practices? I want to have the /foo/bar stored in $PATH permanently and accessible directly within the install.sh script as well as from the command line. Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS

228

0 + 4

bash

environment-variables

bashrc

Tilman

6/2/24, 6:23 PM

It seems the other question you linked to has been resolved. Also the script snippets in your question show a lot of typos, such as a spurious blank between `#!` and `/bin/sh`, or `/user` instead of `/usr`. Could you update your question and verify that your problem persists with the typos fixed?

richbl

6/3/24, 12:24 AM

**Welcome to the Ask Ubuntu community.** What @Tilman said. I'll also add that questions that are not related to the Ubuntu OS specifically can usually be addressed more directly via the [Unix & Linux SE community](https://unix.stackexchange.com/).

Hannu

6/3/24, 6:56 AM

Now, scripts that are not `source`'d do run in a subshell, so will not update the current (launcher) shell - might this be the actual "problem" here? - it does not help to `source ~/.bashrc` either as you still are in the same subshell.

muru

6/7/24, 9:23 AM

The right way to do this is to ***not do it***. Output a message like "To add this program to your `PATH`, add the following line to your `.profile`, `.bashrc` or other preferred shell configuration file: `export PATH="<path/to/add>:$PATH"`" and *let the user do it*. It's not your place to go messing around my shell config files. `.bashrc` may not even be the right place if they're not using bash. See also: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1026332/does-pip-have-autocomplete/1026594#comment1669103_1026594

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EN: export path to $PATH via shell script

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