⪼ Made with 💜 by Polyglot.
- ...
- By Wil Moore III
- published by showerthought publishing
How to manage environment variables & $PATH on macOS, linux, and windows.
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- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 :: ...
- Installing binaries
- Finding programs with the
whichcommand - The
echocomamnd - $PATH
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How to manage environment variables & $PATH on macOS, linux, and windows.
One of the most simple, yet confusing things in all of computers is the system path environment variables and environment variables in general.
Who needs this? If you are an IT professional, you should probably already know this stuff; but, you might still need a refresher.
If you're a softare developer, engineer, or tester, you'll inevitably run into scenarios where your system path is causing issues for you.
If you're a gamer, you've at some point had to deal with the system path or at least one of the system environment variables in order to make your machine do what you want it to do. If you haven't yet given up and tossed your computer out of a window, congratulations, you're probably a power user. If you did give up, then this guide will help you master the situation.
System environment variables are just string values with uppercased names (usually) that the entire system has access to.
POWER TIP: This is why you should never store any sensistive information in an environment variable unless that information is one-way hashed or encrypted or both.
The "PATH" environment variable is the most important environment variable on any computer. It's definately one of, if not the most frequently accessed.
Whenever you attempt to launch a program from the command-line (i.e. terminal, shell, etc), the "PATH" environment variable is being referenced.
You might not realize it, but almost every program you launch on your computer needs the system path to function. Some programs also rely on other environment variables as well.
The terms, "System Path" and "environment variables" might sound a little bit intimidating, but, I'm about to prove to you that these are actually very simple concepts.
Ironically, these "simple concepts" are critical to your computer functioning as expected.