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DD.
Asked: 2012-05-17 03:38:09 +0800 CST

/etc/environment export path

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I have the following /etc/environment:

export PATH=$PATH

Whenever I log in I get the following errors:

-bash: id: command not found
-bash: tty: command not found

What am I doing wrong?

(my actual /etc/enviroment is more complicated and sets up java onto the path but for simplicity I cant even get the above to work)

I'm using Centos6

linux centos

3 Answers

  1. You've misunderstood the /etc/environment syntax. It's not interpreted as a series of shell commands, so it isn't a .sh file at all. The /etc/environment is loaded when the shell doesn't exist yet, and when it's still not decided whether there would be bash or csh or other. There might even be a customization to run some specific program instead of a shell. Hence /etc/environment has a really basic syntax.

    As seen on this Unix/Linux StackExchange answer:

    you can only put static environment variable definitions, of the form VARIABLE=VALUE or VARIABLE="VALUE", with one definition per line. You can't have arbitrary shell commands, you can't refer to the value of another variable by writing FOO=hello+$BAR

    In your case, you shouldn't have used export shell command.

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  2. Best Answer

    I think the cleaner approach is to use an entry in /etc/profile.d over /etc/environment, but can you echo the output of $PATH? That may be the real issue. Or at least show the complicated environment file's details.

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  3. This sounds like a quoting problem (i.e. the current value of $PATH contains IFS characters and bash is trying to execute some part of it). Variable values should almost always be quoted, so that line should look like:

    export PATH="$PATH"

    However, since you're not changing the value of $PATH you don't actually need the assignment, and the following is sufficient:

    export PATH
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