How to remove entry from $PATH on mac - macos

I was trying to install Sencha Touch SDK tools 2.0.0 but could not run it properly. It created an entry in the $PATH variable.
Later I deleted the sencha sdk tools folder but didn't realize that the path variable is still there.
When i did echo $PATH I got -
/Applications/SenchaSDKTools-2.0.0-beta3:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
I searched on how to remove variables from $PATH and followed these steps :
Gave the command PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin"
Did echo $PATH which showed /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
gave the command export PATH
Closed terminal and reopened it. Gave the command echo $PATH. This time I got
/Applications/SenchaSDKTools-2.0.0-beta3:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
Can anyone tell me what am i doing wrong?

echo $PATH and copy it's value
export PATH=""
export PATH="/path/you/want/to/keep"

Check the following files:
/etc/bashrc
/etc/profile
~/.bashrc
~/.bash_profile
~/.profile
~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
Some of these files may not exist, but they're the most likely ones to contain $PATH definitions.

On MAC OS X Leopard and higher
cd /etc/paths.d
There may be a text file in the above directory that contains the path you are trying to remove.
vim textfile //check and see what is in it when you are done looking type :q
//:q just quits, no saves
If its the one you want to remove do this
rm textfile //remove it, delete it
Here is a link to a site that has more info on it, even though it illustrates 'adding' the path. However, you may gain some insight.

What you're doing is valid for the current session (limited to the terminal that you're working in). You need to persist those changes. Consider adding commands in steps 1-3 above to your ${HOME}/.bashrc.

If you're removing the path for Python 3 specifically, I found it in ~/.zprofile and ~/.zshrc.

$PATH contains data that is referenced from actual files. Ergo, you should find the file containing the reference you want to delete, and then delete said reference.
Here is a good list to run through progressively [copied from #Ansgar's answer with minor updates].
/etc/bashrc
/etc/profile
~/.bashrc
~/.bash_profile
~/.profile
~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
/etc/paths
/etc/paths.d/
Note that /etc/paths.d/ is a directory that contains files with path references. For example, inside this directory may be a file called, say, fancy-app, and inside this file you'll see an entry like below:
/path/to/fancy-app
This path will appear in your $PATH and you can delete the entry in the file to remove it, or you can delete the file if it has only the one reference you want to remove.

Use sudo pico /etc/paths inside the terminal window and change the entries to the one you want to remove, then open a new terminal session.

when you login, or start a bash shell, environment variables are loaded/configured according to .bashrc, or .bash_profile. Whatever export you are doing, it's valid only for current session. so export PATH=/Applications/SenchaSDKTools-2.0.0-beta3:$PATH this command is getting executed each time you are opening a shell, you can override it, but again that's for the current session only. edit the .bashrc file to suite your need. If it's saying permission denied, perhaps the file is write-protected, a link to some other file (many organisations keep a master .bashrc file and gives each user a link of it to their home dir, you can copy the file instead of link and the start adding content to it)

Close the terminal(End the current session). Open it again.

If the manual export $PATH method does not seem to be working after you close the terminal and open again, definitely check the shell configuration files.
I found a small script that kept adding some more path in front of the $PATH everytime it was open.
For zsh you can check the ~/.zshrc file.

Related

I have accidentally set up my path environment variable incorrectly using the .bash_profile on macbook. How do I reset it?

-bash: export: /Users/deboadebayo/Desktop/Coding/:/opt/anaconda3/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin':
not a valid identifier
The above message is the error message I receive every time I open my terminal. I did create a backup of my bash profile. But essentially now I can no longer navigate anywhere I want to go using command line requests.
Any help would be much appreciated
If you have a backup, use an absolute path to the mv and cp commands to rename your broken file and restore the backup, both without depending on path lookup.
/bin/mv .bash_profile .bash_profile.broken
/bin/cp .bash_profile.backup .bash_profile
Close the current terminal window and open a new one, which should use your working, original .bash_profile to initialize PATH. Now you try to make the correct modification to your PATH.
oops. The easiest way to fix it would be to launch an editor with an absolute path. $PATH only specifies the locations in which the shell will search if told to execute a program relative (or no) path specified. The which program can search the path and shows the first executable found:
$ which vim
/usr/bin/vim
So if you're a vim user, you should be able to run /usr/bin/vim at the command line, and the path won't be relevant. Then you can fix your file in the editor. Looks like my osx machine also has nano if you'd prefer that editor. I don't think I installed it so it probably came shipped with osx I'm guessing:
$ which nano
/usr/bin/nano
If you want to revert to your backup, use cp, but specify it from its absolute position, /bin/cp:
$ /bin/cp first.txt second.txt
Obviously you'll want to change the file names on that one for it to work for you.

Cant access my bash files

So I wanted to install MySQL on my MBP and I edited my bash_profile, added a path variable, however when I run echo $PATH from iTerm2 I get my path as:
Robs-MBP:~ Rob$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/mysql/bin
Ive tried a lot of commands and even used sudo and it just says command not found. My fear is that I have completely messed up, and now nothing works. Please help.
You've made a simple mistake: all you've done is reset the PATH env variable. To correctly do this, you should always add the existing PATH to the end of whatever you're adding. In you case:
PATH=/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH
To fix your problem from the terminal, you'll need to reset your PATH to somewhere with a text editor. I don't know where this is located on OSX, so you'll have to find it. After you know where your path should point, run:
$ export PATH=<YOUR_PATH_HERE>
Then edit your bashrc to include the original path as described above, and restart the terminal.
Alternatively, open .bashrc with a GUI text editor and make the change from there. Your PATH decleration should always end in :$PATH to include the PATH created by your system.

locate my bash configuration file

Is there a way to find the name of the bash configuration file that is currently on use. I searched for the .profile or .bashrc but did not find them. However still I can print some of the env variables i.e
$HOME, $PATH
If you are using one of these sudo su -, bash --login, ssh user#host,
these are considered as login shell,
then you might want to try
/etc/profile
~/.bash_profile
~/.bash_login
~/.profile
Environment variables are stored in the each process itself.$HOME and $PATH is stored in the bash process itself.
So,First you have to find process id of your bash process.You can use ps command to get the process id of the process.
Then,
cat /proc/your_bash_process_id/environ
I hope this will helps you.
As some people said, those files are in the home directory.
(Screenshot from Wiki article.)
I'll tell you here how to find it (the explanation here is for Windows 10 only), which is my system.
You can quickly find and open some of those locations with the following commands (using bash console):
cd ~ ← It will take you to your home directory.
ls -a ← It will display files and folders, both visible and hidden.
explorer . ← It will open the home folder in Windows Explorer, which can be really useful. Look for the file/folder you need. Move to it using:
cd folder-name or open the file in the text editor using notepad file-name. For your case, you should find and open notepad .bashrc
Those files are in the user's home directory.
$HOME/.profile
$HOME/.bashrc

when i type commands in the terminal i get an error - "command not found"

gal-harths-iMac:~ galharth$ ruby -v
-bash: ruby: command not found
gal-harths-iMac:~ galharth$ open -e .bash_profile
-bash: open: command not found
what shoud i do?
my .bash_profile and .profile and .bashrc are empty, i need to write something in them?..
I suspect that you have something overriding your default path (like .bash_profile or .bashrc) open is a valid command on os x, for me man open returns
NAME
open -- open files and directories
SYNOPSIS
open [-e] [-t] [-f] [-W] [-R] [-n] [-g] [-h] [-b bundle_identifier]
[-a application] file ... [--args arg1 ...]
DESCRIPTION
The open command opens a file (or a directory or URL), just as if you had
double-clicked the file's icon. If no application name is specified, the
default application as determined via LaunchServices is used to open the
specified files.....
Likewise it is possible ruby is installed but not on the path. My best guess would be to delete or rename your .bashrc and .bash_profile files and log off as that user and log back in, to reset your bash session.
To test if it is a user level issue, create a new account under system preferences -> accounts and then log in as that user, open a terminal and type ruby -v or man open, etc to see if you can do it on a default user account. If that works, it is most certainly some bash settings you have customized in your 'gal-harth' account.
The first step to figuring out what's gone wrong is to see what your current PATH is.
echo $PATH
If that returns a blank line, something has gone horribly wrong. You can fix it temporarily by running:
export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin
And that should get you ruby, as well as open, and man, and a bunch of other commands.
The thing is, the PATH says “Look in these directories for binary files” and not “Here is an explicit list of binary files I want to use.”
Ruby is not installed. You need to install it from their website here.
Similarly, "open" is not any bash command I've ever heard of.
Upon further reflection, are you trying to install rvm?
If you have already installed Ruby, is its location already set in your PATH variable? If not, you can add it to your .bash_profile like this:
echo 'export PATH=/wherever/ruby/is/located:$PATH' >> ~/.bash_profile
Something is screwing up your PATH -- you shouldn't need to have a .profile (or any of its variants) to have the default PATH set properly. Generally, when the PATH gets screwed up, it's because it's being set wrong in one of the various profile files. When you say .bash_profile and .profile and .bashrc are empty, do you mean they exist but don't have anything in them, or they don't exist at all? Also, do you have a .bash_login or .bashrc file?
I'd take a closer look around your home directory. Use /bin/ls -ld ~/.* to list all of the invisible files in your home directory, and look for anything with "sh", "profile", or "rc" in the name. Also, run /usr/bin/grep PATH ~/.* to see if any of the invisible files mention PATH -- if any do, they're likely suspects.
just type bash_filename or ./_filename

How to make a shell script global?

I am on Mac's OS 10.6, and I am trying to learn a thing or two about shell scripting. I understand how to save a shell script and make it executable, but I am wondering what I can do or where I can save the file to make it global (that is, accessible no matter what folder I am in).
For example, if I save a .sh file in the /Users/username/ directory and make it executable, I can only execute that script in that specific directory. If I navigate to /Users/username/Downloads, for example, I can't execute the script.
Also, any suggestions of resources for learning more about shell scripting would be helpful. Thanks
/usr/local/bin would be the most appropriate location. Mac OS X has it in the PATH by default
There are two ways to do it -
Put your script in usr/local/bin and make sure it is executable(chmod +x my_script)(This is already set in the path, you can check by doing an echo $PATH)
Create a folder in your home directory called bin. (For your personal scripts)
cd ~ (Takes you to your home directory)
mkdir bin (create a bin folder)
vim .bash_profile (to set path environment variable)
export PATH=~/bin:$PATH (Press i then add this line and then do esc and type :wq)
Now you can just type the name of your script and run it from anywhere you want.
** NOTE: If you want to run the script with a shortened command rather than typing your entire filename, add the following to your .bash_profile:
alias myscript='my_script.sh'
Then you can run the script by simply typing myscript. (you can sub in whatever alias you'd like)
Traditionally, such scripts either go in ~/bin (ie: the bin directory in your home directory) or /usr/local/bin/ The former means the script will only work for you, the latter is for scripts you want anybody on the system to be able to run.
If you put it in ~/bin, you may need to add that to your PATH environment variable. /usr/local/bin should already be on the path.
In mac operating system
Open bash ~/.bashrc file.
add path of your script in your bashrc file , using
export PATH="$PATH:/Users/sher.mohammad/Office/practice/practiceShell"
Open your ~./bash_profile file and add [[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source ~/.bashrc
open new terminal window
Now whenever you will open your terminal your script will be loaded
This one is super easy if you are familiar with your bashrc file! This will entirely use just your .bashrc file and takes 2 seconds to accomplish.
(I use Arch Linux Manjaro so I use .bashrc located in my home directory)
The code to be placed in your .bashrc file:
# Simple bashrc method to launch anything in terminal from any directory
YOURCOMMAND () {
cd /path/to/directory/containing/your/script/ && ./YOURSCRIPT
}
As you can see, first you use the simple 'cd' command and give it the directory of the scripts location, then use '&&' so that you can make the next command executed right after, and finally open your script just as you would normally! Super easy and saved right in your .bash file! :)
Hope I've helped someone!
Sincerely,
AnonymousX
On using bash shell, write that script as function and then put it to the .bashrc or source the file which containing that function by "source file_name"
Now execute the script by function call in the shell.
Either saving it in /usr/bin (or any other directory present in PATH) or editing PATH to include the directory you saved it in will basically make it run in any directory.
from the working directory of 'script.sh'" mv [script.sh] /usr/local/bin"( not tested but seems to be the least complex way IMO.)
You should put it in the global executable directory on your machine. I think that would usually be /usr/bin on Unix-based operating systems (this would however most often require super user privileges on that machine).
You could also put it in any other directory that is in the $PATH environment variable, although it would only work for those users who have that directory in that variable.
You can find the value of $PATH by typing echo $PATH in a shell. The directories are separated by :.

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