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Mohammad Reza Rezwani
Asked: 2014-03-30 02:43:07 +0800 CST

Add a binary to my path

  • 772

I have an executable. I want to execute the executable in terminal with name only like other commands.

I can put my executable in /usr/local/bin or I could add its PATH to ~/.bashrc. Both will work.

What is better? Is there any difference?

command-line

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    For example let me assume, you have an executable myscript. You need to run it from a terminal as,

    /path/to/myscript

    User level Change

    If you add the PATH of that executable to ~/.bashrc, you can run the executable with name only from anywhere (Avinash Raj already mentioned), as 

    myscript

    But the change will be affected in user level. That means if you have any other user(s) they could not access the executable with name only. If they have proper permission they need to run the executable as,

    /path/to/myscript

    Also, you will not be able to run the script as sudo as it is not in PATH of root, To run as sudo you need to use,

    sudo /path/to/myscript

    system level change

    If you put your script in /usr/local/bin it can be accessed system wide and for all users. In that case any user can run your executable as (subject to having proper permissions)

    myscript

    In that case you can run the executable as sudo also as, 

    sudo myscript

    Now choose one way depending upon your need.

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  2. Adding the location of the file to your $PATH variable in your ~/.bashrc file will only allow you to execute from any location, whereas putting it in /usr/bin/ will allow all users on your system to execute that file from any location.

    Why is that? Because, your ~/.bashrc file is only visible to you as a user. So all variable changes done are limited to you. Whereas, adding that file to /usr/bin will allow the file to remain there for all users and since /usr/bin is present in the $PATH variable unless someone removes it, will allow all users to execute it from any location.

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  3. If you put the executable file in /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin, then you will be able to run that program by only specifying the name (your-program instead of /usr/local/bin/your-program).

    If you instead add the directory containing the program to the ~/.bashrc file to the PATH, then any executable file present in that directory can be launched by only typing its name.

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  4. Just as a complement to @souravc answer...

    For the "User level Change", instead of editing the ~/.bashrc file you can simply create the directory $HOME/bin/ and place your scripts in there.

    The directory will be automatically added to the PATH (at least since Ubuntu 12.04) which means that you'll be able to run all the scripts/executables inside that directory with a simple:

    myscript

    Just my 2 cents. :)

    PS- I tried to post this as a comment to @souravc answer, but I didn't have enough reputation. :-(

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