altering PATH variable

[redhawk87]

Hey all, I am trying to add a path to my PATH variable on redhat linux and seem to be having problems. I can set the path variable like this:

PATH=$PATH:/my/dir
export PATH

and that works fine but its not a permanent fix. Also, that only works for the current terminal session. If I try and open another terminal session I would have to retype in the commands. I have read I need to change my ~/.bash_profile file but that file does not exist. I created the file in the ~ directory and added the two lines above but when I log out and log back in, the PATH variable is not changed. Any help would be great!

[hazel]

Try putting it into .bashrc. You might find this article useful.

[Rubberman]

What hazel suggests will work, but isn't optimal. It is best to put the in your ~/.bash_profile instead:

export PATH="${PATH}:/my/dir"

File names that start with a dot are "invisible", which is probably why you don't see it normally. ~ is your home directory (accessible also with the $HOME environment variable). In any case, if bash is your default shell, then you MUST have the following files in your home directory:

1. .bash_history
2. .bash_logout
3. .bash_profile
4. .bashrc

Just for my information, what distribution+version of Fedora/RedHat are you running?