Ubuntu – Non-sudo alternative to /usr/local/bin for common scripts

bashcommand linepermissionsscripts

I'm used to putting common scripts in /usr/local/bin so that I can execute them from anywhere with the terminal.

For example, I make a shell script named 1, make it executable with chmod +x 1 and put it in /usr/local/bin, and inside the script I type #!/bin/sh on the first line, and then my commands. From there on, it's very conveniently usable and quick to execute by typing

1Enter

on the terminal, from inside any folder.

My problem is that I'm currently working on a computer where can't do sudo and I can't expect to get it either, so I can't place my script in /usr/local/bin.

What are my options? Is there another path with the same "run from anywhere" capability, which I can access without sudo, or another way to achieve something equivalent?

The accepted answer to this post says

For user-scoped scripts, use bin/ in your home directory.

Which I tried, but there is no bin folder in my home directory, and when I created one, I still could not run the script from anywhere else.

I'm running on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

Best Answer

What are my options? Is there another path with the same "run from anywhere" capability, which I can access without sudo, or another way to achieve something equivalent?

How to do it?

Create some dir in your home to hold your scripts normally named as bin as convention.

mkdir ~/bin

Now move your scripts to bin

mv somescript ~/bin

Now how to make it tun from everywhere?!

You have to add the bin to the PATH

open your .bashrc 

gedit .bashrc

and add this line:

export PATH=$PATH:/home/username/bin

Don't forget to replace username with your User Name

Save and exit, then source the bashrc

source .bashrc

and now you are fine, you can run your script as you used to do! but you have to notice this is related to your user only.

Note: It's better to rename your scripts other than 1 ,2 since you may face some issues with that names

UPDATE:

You can do same just create the bin dir in your home then source ~/.profile instead of ~/.bashrc. Since adding the ~/bin to your PATH is already listed in .profile

# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi
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