Terminal – Command Found with `which` but Runs from Old Path

command lineenvironment-variablespathterminal

I have installed new version of npm in the custom directory .npm-global/bin and removed it from /usr/local/bin. The new path is declared:

PATH=/usr/local/bin:./node_modules/.bin:/Users/dmitrizaitsev/.npm-global/bin:...

and the new npm is found with which:

which npm
/Users/dmitrizaitsev/.npm-global/bin/npm

However, it still attempts to run from the old path and fails:

npm
-bash: /usr/local/bin/npm: No such file or directory

Any idea what is wrong here?

Best Answer

The old path is still cached by the shell. Either open a new tab/window or run hash -r to clear it.

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Your question is unclear as it seems to ask several things. However the issue re launching from the Dock can be answered.

The Dock does not call a shell. .profile and other startup scripts are only run when Terminal.app or similar starts a shell or you run a shell script via launchd etc.

To change the path used for Apps launched from the Dock, Finder or other GUI then you need to change the path your Workspace uses this is in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist e.g. mine is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
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Also have a look at this question.

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I found the cause.

It looks like the permissions on /usr/local/bin was 700, which is wrong. It should be 755. Changing the permissions fixed it and I can now access the mercurial command line client.

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