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When I echo $PATH in a terminal window, it outputs:

/home/charles/anaconda3/bin:
/home/charles/anaconda3/condabin:
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:
/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/snap/bin:
/home/charles/.emacs.d/bin

But when I run the script (not as root):

#!/bin/sh
echo $PATH

it only outputs the root paths, not the ones from my home directory:

/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:
/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:
/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/snap/bin

I'm trying to launch spyder from a script, which comes from:

$ which spyder
/home/charles/anaconda3/bin/spyder

Is there some way to make the script recognize the parts of the path from my home directory?

Solved: I moved the code adding emacs and anaconda to the path from ~/.bashrc to ~/.profile.

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  • Related: unix.stackexchange.com/q/26047/237982. Specifically Gilles answer that talks about how to correct set your PATH variable. Sounds like you may be setting it in your rc file instead of your profile file. Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 14:39
  • In which file do you add the directories /home/charles/... to your PATH? What is the first line of your script? (= Is the script run by bash or by sh?) Please edit your question to provide this information, don't use comments for this purpose. Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 14:46
  • Welcome, can we assume that you are not running the script as root? Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 14:46

1 Answer 1

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Your script runs in a subshell - meaning that it was spawned by your interactive/login shell. A subshell is a shell spawned for the express purpose of running your script/program. One of the rules for a subshell is that it can access the global variables set by the "parent shell", but not the local variables.

This suggests that the /home/... variables are local variables, meaning that you set them somewhere/somehow - maybe in ~/.bashrc?

The solution is that you must declare your local PATH variables inside your script. You could do this as follows:

export PATH="$PATH:/home/charles/anaconda3/bin:/home/charles/anaconda3/condabin:/home/charles/.emacs.d/bin"

This PATH is now local to your script/subshell, and will not be propagated as a global variable.

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  • 2
    Redoing your PATH in every individual script would get annoying fast. Far better to set the PATH somewhere like .bash_profile that will be sourced by the login shell and use export so it gets passed on to all forked shells (or there may be other options depending on login manager, init system or choice of shell). Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 0:46
  • @frabjous: Good point. I didn't put that in my answer as the OP asked about a specific script, not all scripts. Sometimes, a de-scoped PATH is a good thing. :) Commented Jun 2, 2022 at 1:04

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