How to Set the Mac’s $PATH back the way it was before

terminal

I'm just getting started with Terminal, the other day I might have messed something up with my urs/local/bin. When executing echo $PATH it returns me with /usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin the original path was /usr/local/bin How do I set it back to factory settings?

Thanks in Advance for your Help.

Best Answer

By default the paths are saved in the file /etc/paths. You can edit it e.g. with sudo vim /etc/paths. Each line should contain one directory used for $PATH.

Then there is the directory /etc/paths.d/ that can contain text files with paths in it.

Furthermore the path can be modified in the files ~/.bashrc and ~/.bash_profile.

However, the $PATH you are stating is the default one and usually desired. Restricting it to only /usr/local/bin would make a lot of default applications - like vim, ls, or even sudo that reside in /usr/bin/ or /bin/ - inaccessible without typing their whole paths every time.

Related Solutions

Many programs notify me that “grep/sed/uname/… not found”; some run, some don’t. My system(?) path is damaged, how to go about a diagnosing it

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">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>WAFDIR</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/src/third_party/git-svn/waf</string>

  <key>PATH</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/bin:/Users/mark/env/bin:/Users/mark/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/libexec/binutils:</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Also have a look at this question.

MacOS Terminal Commands Not Found – Troubleshooting Guide for Mac OSX

$PATH should contain these folders: /usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin.

Try editing ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile, or ~/.bash_login (with for example /usr/bin/open ~/.bash_profile -a TextEdit) and commenting out any lines that modify the path.

If that works, you can add a line like export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH to ~/.bash_profile.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Many programs notify me that “grep/sed/uname/… not found”; some run, some don’t. My system(?) path is damaged, how to go about a diagnosing it

MacOS Terminal Commands Not Found – Troubleshooting Guide for Mac OSX

Related Question