help: path variables...huh?

[Ben Steeves]

On Sun, 20 Jun 2004 01:03:13 +0000, javac javac <javac at mail.com> wrote:
> 
> i'm running FC1 and've never understood the path variable stuff.  when i type "pine" or "pico" at the terminal i get the expected response, but...
> 
> to use the java compiler i have to enter the full path, along the lines of:
> 
> /home/net/j2../javac foo.java
> 
> which seems a bit much.  what i want is to "javac foo.java" without all that path info.

The concept of the PATH variable is pretty straightforward... the
paths referenced by PATH (separated by colons) indicate the places
that will be searched for a command you type at the prompt.  For
example, if PATH = /usrr/bin:/usr/local/bin, then when you type "foo",
the shell will look for "/usr/bin/foo" and "/usr/local/bin/foo", and
execute whichever one it finds first (that has the execute bit set,
but that's a different tutorial).

Now, say I want to add /bar to my search path.  I just re-assign PATH
by typing "export PATH=$PATH:/bar" -- what this does is effectively
append ":/bar" to the current value of PATH.

To see what your path currently is, type "echo $PATH".

To change it permanently, modify ~/.bashrc.
-- 
Ben Steeves
            ben.steeves at gmail.com
            GPG ID: 0xB3EBF1D9
            http://www.metacon.ca/