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I installed some programs in /opt/my-program/bin, I wanted to add /opt/my-program/bin to system $PATH for all users's non-login shell and login shell. What should I do?

Changing /etc/environment is OK for non-login shell, but it does not work for login shell because Debian's /etc/profile (which will be sourced by login shell) will override the $PATH specified in /etc/environment.

Yang Bo
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  • If it's just a couple of binaries you want people to have access to, you can just symlink them to /usr/local/bin without altering environment variables. – jordanm Oct 08 '12 at 06:53
  • Symlinks does not work because the files in /opt/my-program/bin use some shell script like cd $(basedir "$0"). Symlinks cause $0 changes. – Yang Bo Oct 08 '12 at 07:02
  • @user955091 I'd consider that a bug in the program. The standard technique is to look at the symlink target in such a case, precisely so that you can symlink the program in /usr/local/bin or ~/bin. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 08 '12 at 22:56
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    Why not remove the assignment of PATH in /etc/profile (at least for non-root users)? – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Oct 08 '12 at 22:57

2 Answers2

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The /etc/login.defs file contains a default path as follows:

ENV_SUPATH      PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
ENV_PATH        PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

Some of the variables are moving to the pam modules, but the /bin/login still has it's config file independent of users' shell.

Matej Kovac
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Make /etc/profile source /etc/bash.bashrc by adding [ -f /etc/bash.bashrc ] && . /etc/bash.bashrc to the end of /etc/profile, then add your path changes to /etc/bash.bashrc with PATH=$PATH:/some/other/path

rwong48
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didster
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    /etc/profile is not executed by non-login shell – Yang Bo Oct 08 '12 at 08:06
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    I know - but bash.bashrc is which is why the path change should be added there and then make /etc/profile source /etc/bash.bashrc to make the changes for login shells as well. – didster Oct 08 '12 at 08:14