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Rasel Khan
Asked: 2015-06-16 23:04:12 +0800 CST

How to remove PATH variable on Ubuntu 14.04?

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I've export PATH="~/.composer/vendor/bin/lumen" in .bashrc and .bash_profile after export then lumen command not working, Rasel Khan:~$ lumen lumen: command not found But if command type ~/.composer/vendor/bin/lumen in terminal then working, i want only when lumen command type in terminal then exactly same as screenshot. how can i fix this ?

see screenshot enter image description here

command-line

4 Answers

  1. Your problem will not be solved simply by unsetting PATH, as you'll still be left without a PATH that includes the necessary system directories. When you set your own PATH, in most cases you will want to append your new entry to the old PATH variable, not replace it entirely, as you have done.

    Set your PATH variable back to the system default by typing

    export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

    and then go edit your .bashrc and .bash_profile to have the correct entry, which will be something like

    export PATH="$PATH:~/.composer/vendor/bin"

    Notice the variable is set to begin with the existing $PATH. This way, you'll still have all the original system directories in your PATH, and your addition will be on the end. Also note that I removed lumen from the end of your example, because lumen is apparently the name of the binary you are trying to execute, and your PATH should include only directories containing binaries, not the binaries themselves.

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  2. Exec this to get your system default:

    grep _PATH /etc/login.defs
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  3. The command could not be located because '/bin' is not included in the PATH environment variable.

    This error means you overwrite your default path with the added PATH vairable above.

    How to restore the old PATH?

    The default PATH variable is defined in /etc/environment.

    To restore the default PATH first delete the add line export PATH="~/.composer/vendor/bin/lumen" from your .bashrc

    Then save and source using command:

    source .bashrc

    then delete from .bash_profile then save and source:

    source .bash_profile

    Now source /etc/environment to restore the default path

    source /etc/environment

    Now your default PATH is restored, you can check by running echo $PATH

    Adding new path to PATH variable

    Now to add a new PATH use:

    export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.composer/vendor/bin/

    EDIT: The error here raises because we add the binary itself so check the above line

    Add the line to .bashrc then save and source:

    source .bashrc

    Check running $PATH you should see your new added path.

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  4. the PATH stores all the places where the terminal looks for your applications/scripts etc... If you set the PATH to some "unfriendly" directory, the system will not be able to find /bin/sudo and others. You will have to type the whole path like /bin/sudo. The best way to fix this is to open your bash_profile and insert this line: export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games I think changing the profile will work just after the next reboot, so do this and after that use the command export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games to fix it for the current session.

    "Protip :D :D" if you want to check for your own programs in a directory "/home/username/foo/bin", just add this way to your PATH and you will be able to call the programs stored there just by their names

    Hope it helps :)

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