Windows – Git for Windows: how to apply changes in PATH without reboot

gitgit-bashwindows

I'm using Git for Windows on Windows 7.

When I adjust the PATH environment variable, the changes are not applied immediately for console windows.

In order to force applying the changes for a conventional console window, it's necessary to close and reopen the console.

But this doesn't work for Git Bash console window. Changes to PATH are applied in Git Bash only after reboot.

Questions:

Why
How do I force applying the changes in PATH for Git Bash without rebooting? Is there some command that can do this?

Best Answer

Okay, my problem was that i was starting Git Bash from a file manager's context menu. Without being restarted, the file manager remembered the obsolete PATH and somehow transferred it to Git Bash.

Thanks to @gronostaj and @Forza for testing this issue.

Related Solutions

Windows – Why can’t Windows handle an environment variable in Path

Your path is the concatenation of the system path followed by the user path. Additionally, system environment variables may not contain references to user environment variables, and any such references will not be expanded. To get the desired result, insert the reference to %JAVA_HOME% in the user environment variable PATH, or create such a variable if it doesn't already exist.

Perhaps a simplified example will make this clearer. Suppose the SYSTEM environment is

ProgramFiles = C:\Program Files
SystemRoot = C:\WINDOWS
PATH = %SystemRoot%\SYSTEM32

and the User JSmith's environment is

JAVA_HOME = %ProgramFiles%\Java\bin
USERPROFILE = C:\USERS\JSmith
PATH = %JAVA_HOME%\bin;%USERPROFILE%\bin

then the resulting path would be

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32;C:\Program Files\Java\bin;C:\Users\JSmith\bin

as desired.

Windows & Git Bash: Bash PATH to read Windows %PATH% system variable

An msysgit git bash session uses the script share/WinGit/Git Bash.vbs, which doesn't access or modify the environment variable PATH (like it would in this unrelated vbs script, for instance)

A git bash session will simply add in front of your current PATH:

.:/usr/local/bin:/mingw/bin:/bin:

It is possible that the mingw session packaged with msysgit won't consider a bin from another mingw installation: you can check it by setting another (simpler) directory to your PATH and see if it is still visible in your git bash session. If not, then it is a more general issue which concerns all directories that you would add to the PATH.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – Why can’t Windows handle an environment variable in Path

Windows & Git Bash: Bash PATH to read Windows %PATH% system variable

Related Question