a question regarding messing with Windows Path variable.
My situation is quite specific:
I was trying to install ffmpeg according to this tutorial https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-install-ffmpeg-on-windows/
The last step was setting the path variable setx /m PATH "C:\ffmpeg\bin;%PATH%"
It worked, however afterwards I noticed that if I try to call python from the command prompt or the powershell if run as administrator, I started getting 'chcp' is not recognized as an internal or external command, (although works fine if run as user), indicating that something is wrong with PATH variables.
I looked into my variables and saw this edit.
Path
It seems to me that the command added the ffmpeg line to the system path and possibly overwritten the original, which is why there are issues when using command prompt as administrator. It probably should have added it to the user Path (not system Path variable)
If that is the case, is there a way to restore the previous system Path variable. Maybe I can paste it from the user Path variable?
Related
My goal is to write a shell script that will ensure that a bunch of Windows 10 computers with Python freshly installed on them can run the 'python' command from a git-bash command line in Windows Terminal by having the script check the PATH environment variable and modify it if necessary.
More specifically, I want my script to check if the following three paths are part of each computer's PATH, and if they aren't already a part of it, edit the PATH so that it permanently contains them.
C:\Program Files\Python311
C:\Program Files\Python311\Scripts
C:\Users\ <localUser>\AppData\Roaming\Python\Python311\Scripts
What threw me off is that I noticed that the PATH variable that I get from the 'env' command on the git-bash command line is different from the PATH variable that I can see in Windows 10's control panel. I tried adding a junk path to PATH from the command line by typing
export PATH=/c/someNonexistentPath in git bash but it didn't change the PATH that I could see in the Windows 10 control panel. Moreover, I couldn't even see if it changed the PATH I get from running env on the command line because for some reason after you run any export command git-bash gets amnesia and refuses to recognize the env command until you start a new session of git-bash.
Shouldn't there only be one PATH on a computer? If the two seemingly different PATHs that I have mentioned are not supposed to be the same, what is the difference between them, and how can I accomplish my goal of writing the script so that it does what I need it to do?
Please let me know if I need to include any more system-specific info. Thanks in advance for your help.
I have been trying to get windows to recognize shortcuts for developer tools. Things like adb for C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools\adb.exe. I have tried using CMD and Powershell but they both don't add the PATH I tried the GUI and it doesn't show up.
I've tried setx path "%PATH%;C:\path\to\C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools\adb.exe" in powershell and cmd then restarted powershell or cmd
input the variable adb but it pulls a command not recognized error.
Did you try the following?
Adding the path "C:\Users\myusername\Andriod\platform-tools" to your system/user PATH variable? You can do this by start-> environment variable -> environment variable and under system or user, edit the PATH variable and add the above link. Once you do this, restart CMD for it to work.
Add the executable in one of the already existing locations that are in the PATH variable. (Although this is one method, I would not suggest this). Again, if the executable has any dependencies, it must be in a place where the exe itself can access.
I just installed scala but I can't call it from the command line. So I dutifully checked my path through the environmental variables of the control panel and saw the scala folder present. If I type scala from cmd within that folder, it works fine.
So I tried echo %PATH% from windows cmd to see any problem. If running a normal command window, I get almost the same path except it's missing the scala path item. If I run the command line (Admin), then the echoed path matches the environment variables version. Under this admin setting, scala works fine.
There is no user path variable defined, it's only a system variable.
I've never seen this before. Why is there a difference between admin path and non-admin path? And how do I access the scala path item from the non-admin command line?
Thanks!
I just had the same problem, it was caused by the environment variables not being refreshed. A reboot would have solved it, however there is a way to refresh the environment variables without a reboot.
Open cmd prompt window
Input set PATH=C
close and restart cmd prompt window
input echo %PATH% to check
This worked for me in Windows 10.
I would like to ask you if it's normal that my "Setting environment" changes after each system reboot or even if I just close my cmd console.
for example, I'm using python 3.5, when I wan to use python or to uses pip under the cmd I got an error like :
C:\>python
'python' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
To fix this, I use :
set PATH=%PATH%;C:\Python35
It works after, but as I said before, once I restart my computer, or I close the console, I've the same problem !!!
Thanks in advance for your help and comments. I just would like to inform you that I'm using Windows 7 - 64bits.
You need to add this path in System (Windows+Pause key), Advanced, Environment variables. There you have two sections, System and User, in System, edit the PATH key.
The next time you start a console the path will be present.
Alternaly, if you don't want to modify the setting there (or you have no rights) you could start the app with a batch file which sets the path before launching the app.
In Ruby you can adapt the environment variables from within the script itself by using ENV eg ENV['path'] += 'C:\\Python35'
, I'm sure Python can do this too but wouldn't know how. In your use case this won't help of course.
The SETX command will set the variable permanently. Use SETX /? for information. Set a persistent environment variable from cmd.exe
For Python, many developers use venv which is included with the Python install. https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html?highlight=venv#module-venv
If I add C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge to the User PATH variable(by right click on computer -> advanced system settings -> environmental variables), once I open a new cmd shell WinmergeU.exe is not recognized. If I add that path to the System PATH variable, WinmergeU.exe is correctly recognized instead. I though there was no difference between User and System, beside the fact that if I set it on System all the users will see it, while the User PATH is local. Am I doing something wrong?
EDIT 1:
In the follow you can see first the case in which C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge is added to the System PATH variable (but not to the User), then when it is added to the User PATH variable (but not to the System). In the first case Winmerge window launch correctly (not shown) and as you can see the path is shown by the echo %PATH% command. In the second case it does not launch and the path it is not shown by echo %PATH%. (note that I clearly confirmed with OK and closed the environmental variable windows before taking these screenshots, and I opened a new cmd right after changing PATH and pressing ok). This issue might be related to my question here (Does echo %PATH% expand to only the system or also the user variables?) but since it might not be I posted two different question.
You must be getting something wrong, or have environmental problems with your machine. Adding a user PATH environment variable does result in it being merged into the environment of a new process.
Update: Perhaps this comment from the MSDN topic on environment variables might be pertinent:
Found out that on Windows Server 2003, once the system PATH passes 1920 characters, the user PATH environment variable is no longer merged with it to set the process PATH environment variable, even though the full system PATH (even if larger) will be included in the process PATH variable.
On Windows 7, also make sure that the system path does not end with a backslash. If it does, the USER PATH is appended to the system path as per usual, but after a line break, which breaks things. In the latter case, the simple command "path" and "echo %PATH% " will print 2 different outputs.
For 16.6, I've confirmed this issue to be a path length issue as well. At a cmd prompt, typing 'set', you can see all of the env. variables. The user path cadence variables and others weren't included. I saved the original complete path text, then I went through and trimmed specific (system) path elements that were deemed unnecessary. after this, in a new cmd session, typing 'set' now shows the user path elements tacked on to the end of the system path elements, because they now fit.