Editing /etc/profile, some doubts

[Michael Fleming]

On Sat, 2005-01-29 at 10:09 -0200, Leandro Melo wrote:
> Hi, I want to add a folder to my PATH enviroment variable, then i
> tought i could edit /etc/profile.

<snip>

The best course of action depends on the following, IMHO. 

If you want to change it for you only, add it to the $PATH in
~/.bash_profile. For new (future) users, put it
in /etc/skel/.bash_profile.

If it's in addition to the standard path needed by new software, put it
in /etc/profile.d/ as a short shell script itself (the existing ones can
be used as a guide). All users will inherit settings made in here.

I'd be reluctant to mess with the /etc/profile file itself, as changes
may break the shell or other software if done so incorrectly.
Additionally, such a change would most likely be lost in a distro
upgrade.

Michael.

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Michael Fleming <mfleming at enlartenment.com>
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