/media/bill/SWAPPER/System_maintenance/Linux/PATH notes.txt www.BillHowell.ca 09May2019 08********08 21Feb2021 search "Linux and how are global (root) environmental variables set?" https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1641477/how-to-set-environment-variable-for-everyone-under-my-linux-system As well as /etc/profile which others have mentioned, some Linux systems now use a directory /etc/profile.d/; any .sh files in there will be sourced by /etc/profile. It's slightly neater to keep your custom environment stuff in these files than to just edit /etc/profile. answered Oct 29 '09 at 3:53 Kieron https://phoenixnap.com/kb/linux-set-environment-variable 4. To set permanent environment variables for all users, create an .sh file in the /etc/profile.d folder: sudo nano /etc/profile.d/[filename].sh but for the go language [GOPATH, GOROOT] how are the env variables "picked up" by the install process? ************** 23May2019 search "non-free nvidia kernel module" I added at end of "/home/bill/.bashrc/" : export HOWELL_computer="LMDE2" export PATH="/home/bill/bin/:$PATH" wait to see if this works! *************** 09May2019 PATH problem export HOWELL_computer="LMDE2" export PATH="/home/bill/bin/:$PATH" echo $HOWELL_computer echo $PATH /home/bill/bin/:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin $ export PATH="/home/bill/bin/:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin" Doesn't work in ~/.profile !! - need proper boot place fo ENV https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19013725/linux-mint-adding-environment-variables-permanently Try this in the ~/.pam_environment in your home folder, if it does not exist then create it PATH DEFAULT=${PATH}:/home/paul/avatar-gf-1.0-ea/glassfish4/bin/ You will need to log in and out. answered Sep 25 '13 at 19:43 oceanexplorer Run bash -xl to see which startup files are loaded with your shell. .profile may actually not be read. Otherwise try adding export to your assignment: export PATH=$PATH:/home/paul/avatar-gf-1.0-ea/glassfish4/bin/ Reference about bash's startup files: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html answered Sep 25 '13 at 19:41 konsolebox https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html 6.2 Bash Startup Files This section describes how Bash executes its startup files. If any of the files exist but cannot be read, Bash reports an error. Tildes are expanded in filenames as described above under Tilde Expansion (see Tilde Expansion). Interactive shells are described in Interactive Shells. Invoked as an interactive login shell, or with --login When Bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that exists and is readable. The --noprofile option may be used when the shell is started to inhibit this behavior. When an interactive login shell exits, or a non-interactive login shell executes the exit builtin command, Bash reads and executes commands from the file ~/.bash_logout, if it exists. Invoked as an interactive non-login shell When an interactive shell that is not a login shell is started, Bash reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists. This may be inhibited by using the --norc option. The --rcfile file option will force Bash to read and execute commands from file instead of ~/.bashrc. So, typically, your ~/.bash_profile contains the line if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then . ~/.bashrc; fi after (or before) any login-specific initializations. Invoked non-interactively When Bash is started non-interactively, to run a shell script, for example, it looks for the variable BASH_ENV in the environment, expands its value if it appears there, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to read and execute. Bash behaves as if the following command were executed: if [ -n "$BASH_ENV" ]; then . "$BASH_ENV"; fi but the value of the PATH variable is not used to search for the filename. As noted above, if a non-interactive shell is invoked with the --login option, Bash attempts to read and execute commands from the login shell startup files. Invoked with name sh If Bash is invoked with the name sh, it tries to mimic the startup behavior of historical versions of sh as closely as possible, while conforming to the POSIX standard as well. When invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first attempts to read and execute commands from /etc/profile and ~/.profile, in that order. The --noprofile option may be used to inhibit this behavior. When invoked as an interactive shell with the name sh, Bash looks for the variable ENV, expands its value if it is defined, and uses the expanded value as the name of a file to read and execute. Since a shell invoked as sh does not attempt to read and execute commands from any other startup files, the --rcfile option has no effect. A non-interactive shell invoked with the name sh does not attempt to read any other startup files. When invoked as sh, Bash enters POSIX mode after the startup files are read. Invoked in POSIX mode When Bash is started in POSIX mode, as with the --posix command line option, it follows the POSIX standard for startup files. In this mode, interactive shells expand the ENV variable and commands are read and executed from the file whose name is the expanded value. No other startup files are read. Invoked by remote shell daemon Bash attempts to determine when it is being run with its standard input connected to a network connection, as when executed by the remote shell daemon, usually rshd, or the secure shell daemon sshd. If Bash determines it is being run in this fashion, it reads and executes commands from ~/.bashrc, if that file exists and is readable. It will not do this if invoked as sh. The --norc option may be used to inhibit this behavior, and the --rcfile option may be used to force another file to be read, but neither rshd nor sshd generally invoke the shell with those options or allow them to be specified. Invoked with unequal effective and real UID/GIDs If Bash is started with the effective user (group) id not equal to the real user (group) id, and the -p option is not supplied, no startup files are read, shell functions are not inherited from the environment, the SHELLOPTS, BASHOPTS, CDPATH, and GLOBIGNORE variables, if they appear in the environment, are ignored, and the effective user id is set to the real user id. If the -p option is supplied at invocation, the startup behavior is the same, but the effective user id is not reset. # enddoc