Linux – How to save environment variable from Terminal

Stick to the simple "key=value" syntax in the ~/.pam_environment file. No DEFAULT, OVERRIDE, ${HOME}, no nothing. Just key=value. The man page you linked to is for pam_env.conf, only. See "man 8 pam_env" which does not promise anything else "This module can also parse a file with simple KEY=VAL pairs on separate lines.".

By the way putting something like PATH=${PATH}:more/paths in ./pam_environment is a great way to break almost any attempt to login, since the PATH gets set to ${PATH}:more/paths literally (not much to be found there). To rescue, "/bin/mv .pam_environment out_of_the_way" and re-login.

I should be able to type ffmpeg and see it's recognized

but I'm currently still getting the "Not recognized" error.

You have added a new environment variable called ffmpeg.

You are supposed to add C:\ffmpeg\bin to the existing PATH environment variable.

See How to Edit Your System PATH for Easy Command Line Access in Windows or What are PATH and other environment variables, and how can I set or use them? for instructions.

Note:

• If you change the path using the Control panel GUI you need to close and restart any cmd shells to see the change.