Debian LXDE – Add $HOME/bin to PATH for Single User

debianlxdepath

In Ubuntu, if $HOME/bin exists, it will be automagically added to PATH, but this doesn't happen in Debian.

How do I permanently add it to PATH for a given user, but only for him, not for all users? I want it to be valid for GUI programs also, not just for the terminal.

Edit: To clarify, I use LXDE, and from a login manager, i.e. not startx. .bashrc does not work for programs I start outside a terminal.

Best Answer

It turned out that lightdm (the login manager LXDE now uses) does not source ~/.profile.

What worked for me was creating ~/.xsessionrc:

if [ -d $HOME/bin ]; then
    export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

You can also add this to /etc/X11/Xsession.d/90userbinpath if you want all user to benefit from this (each user would benefit for his own path) with a system-wide configuration.

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