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Re: What is a 'path'?



On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 06:54:43PM -0500, sean finney wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 01, 2002 at 11:36:54PM -0500, alex wrote:
> > An instruction says:
> > 
> > "First, be sure that /usr/X11R6/bin is on your path."
> > 
> > What is my "path" and how can I check it?   Is this a matter 
> > of just editing 'path' and adding /usr/X11R6/bin?
> > 
>
[...]
> to set your path to include /usr/X11R6/bin, you just need to say
> 
> PATH="${PATH}:/usr/X11R6/bin"

ok, I feel like this is something I should know, but I've never gotten
it crystal clear.

PATH=blerg
export PATH

When you declare PATH=blerg, the variable PATH is available to the
current shell.  Under what conditions must you export PATH?  I see it in
shell initialization scripts, so it has something to do with subshells.
Does the shell keep separate lists of varibles it knows about and
variables it passes on to subshells?  why?

Could someone say exactly what the export PATH part does and under what
conditions it's necessary?

thanks,

-ben


-- 
Ben Hartshorne     benAThartshorneDOTnet     http://ben.hartshorne.net
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