Adding a New Entry to the Path Variable in Zsh

Question

I'm using zsh terminal, and I'm trying to add a new entry (/home/david/pear/bin) to the PATH variable. I don't see a reference to the PATH variable in my ~/.zshrc file, but doing echo $PATH returns:

/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

So I know that the path variable is being set somewhere. Where is the PATH variable set / modified for the zsh terminal?

Accepted Answer

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 :

Accepted Answer

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.

Answer 3

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.)

Must Read

Common interactive usage

Then the common pattern for testing a new script/executable becomes:

path+=$PWD/.
# or
path+=$PWD/bin

Adding a New Entry to the Path Variable in Zsh

9 Answers

Must Read

Common interactive usage

Alexander Ross