Using ~/.profile to set $PATH

A path set in .bash_profile will only be set in a bash login shell (bash -l). If you put your path in .profile it will be available to your complete desktop session. That means even metacity will use it.

For example ~/.profile:

if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
  PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin"
fi

Btw, you can check the PATH variable of a process by looking at its environment in /proc/[pid]/environ (replace [pid] with the number from ps axf). E.g. use grep -z "^PATH" /proc/[pid]/environ

Note:

bash as a login shell doesn't parse .profile if either .bash_profile or .bash_login exists. From man bash :

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.

See the answers below for information about .pam_environment, or .bashrc for interactive non-login shells, or set the value globally for all users by putting a script into /etc/profile.d/ or use /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ to affect the display managers session.

Edit .bashrc in your home directory and add the following line:

export PATH="/path/to/dir:$PATH"

You will need to source your .bashrc or logout/login (or restart the terminal) for the changes to take effect. To source your .bashrc, simply type

$ source ~/.bashrc

The recommended place to define permanent, system-wide environment variables applying to all users is in:

/etc/environment

(which is where the default PATH is defined)

This will work in desktop or console, gnome-terminal or TTY, rain or shine ;)

• To edit, open the terminal and type:

  sudoedit /etc/environment
  

  (or open the file using sudo in your favorite text editor)

To make it work without rebooting, run . /etc/environment or source /etc/environment. Since this file is just a simple script it will run and assign the new path to the PATH environment variable. To check run env and see the PATH value in the listing.

Related:

• EnvironmentVariables - Community Help Wiki

I think the canonical way in Ubuntu is:

• create a new file under /etc/profile.d/

   sudo vi /etc/profile.d/SCRIPT_NAME.sh
  

• add there:

   export PATH="$PATH:YOUR_PATH_WITHOUT_TRAILING_SLASH"
  

• and give it execute permission

   sudo chmod a+x /etc/profile.d/SCRIPT_NAME.sh
  

For complete newbies (like I am) who are more comfortable with GUI:

1. Open your $HOME folder.
2. Go to View → Show Hidden Files or press Ctrl + H.
3. Right click on .profile and click on Open With Text Editor.
4. Scroll to the bottom and add PATH="$PATH:/my/path/foo".
5. Save.
6. Log out and log back in to apply changes (let Ubuntu actually load .profile).

For persistent environment variables available to particular users only. I highly recommend Ubuntu official documentation.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

Referring to documentation above, I have setup my Android SDK path-tools by:

1. creating ~/.pam_environment file in home directory.
2. the content of which is PATH DEFAULT=${PATH}:~/android-sdk-linux/tools.
3. additional custom user path can be added by separating paths with colon (:).
4. this requires re-login, which means you need to log-out and log-in back to desktop environment.

Put that line in your ~/.bashrc file.

It gets sourced whenever you open a terminal

EDIT: Based on the comments below, for a more general setting that will apply to all shells (including when you hit Alt-F2 in Unity), add the line to your ~/.profile file. Probably shouldn't do both however, as the path will be added twice to your PATH environment if you open a terminal.

Adding it to .bashrc will work but I think the more traditional way of setting up your path variables is in .bash_profile by adding the following lines.

PATH=$PATH:/my/path/foo
export PATH

According to this thread it appears as though Ubuntu's behavior is slightly different than RedHat and clones.

To set it system wide, append the line export PATH=/path/you're/adding:$PATH to the end of /etc/profile.

To add the directory for only the logged-in user, append the same line to ~/.bash_profile.

In terminal, cd to the_directory_you_want_to_add_in_the_path

echo "export PATH=$(pwd):\${PATH}" >> ~/.bashrc

This wasn't my idea. I found this way to export path at this blog here.