How to set PATH Environment Variable?

The PATH is an important concept when working on the command line. It's a list of directories that tell your operating system where to look for programs, so that you can just write script instead of /home/me/bin/script or C:\Users\Me\bin\script. But different operating systems have different ways to add a new directory to it:

For Windows

1. The first step depends which version of Windows you're using:

   • If you're using Windows 8 or 10, press the Windows key, then search for and select "System (Control Panel)".

   • If you're using Windows 7, right click the "Computer" icon on the desktop and click "Properties".

2. Click "Advanced system settings".

3. Click "Environment Variables".

4. Under "System Variables", find the PATH variable, select it, and click "Edit". If there is no PATH variable, click "New".

5. Add your directory to the beginning of the variable value followed by ; (a semicolon). For example, if the value was C:\Windows\System32, change it to C:\Users\Me\bin;C:\Windows\System32.

6. Click "OK".

7. Restart your terminal.

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For Mac OS X

1. Open the .bash_profile file in your home directory (for example, /Users/your-user-name/.bash_profile) in a text editor.

2. Add export PATH="your-dir:$PATH" to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add.

3. Save the .bash_profile file.

4. Restart your terminal.

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For Linux

1. Open the .bashrc file in your home directory (for example, /home/your-user-name/.bashrc) in a text editor.

2. Add export PATH="your-dir:$PATH" to the last line of the file, where your-dir is the directory you want to add.

3. Save the .bashrc file.

4. Restart your terminal.

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