[UCLA-LUG] $PATH

[Frederick Lee]

On Thu, 04 May 2000 00:26:43 -0700, said Namson Tran <namson@ucla.edu>:
>Where is the PATH variable absolutely declared? Everywhere I look, I see a 
>reference to $PATH, but no place where PATH is actually defined. Thanks for 
>any help in advance.
>
>namson

GNU bash has a built-in "absolutely minimal" PATH setting.  This is
configurable when the shell is being compiled (e.g. by the vendor for
a binary distribution); due to Unix patterns, the most common built-in
PATH is "/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin" (or something along those lines).

Site-specific settings are in /etc/profile and/or /etc/bashrc.  If PATH
isn't set in these, bash will keep its builtins.

User-specific settings are in ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bashrc, and/or ~/.profile.
IIRC, these files inherit the settings from the site-wide files.


-Fred