How to set the path OSX applications use

environment-variablesguiosxosx-finderpath

I'm running Mountain Lion 10.8.4, and have my environment all customized through ~/.profile so that when I run GUI apps like Sublime Text or Eclipse from the command line

open /Applications/Sublime\ Text\ 2.app

they inherit my $PATH settings, allowing the app to run external commands not in OSX's very limited default path. However, I'd really like to be able to open programs through Finder or the Dock and give them the same path I use on the command line. launchctl setenv PATH $PATH doesn't work in 10.8. How do I set this up?

Best Answer

Note

This no longer works with more recent versions of OS X, including 10.10 Yosemite (I'm not sure about 10.9 Mavericks). It does work with 10.8 Mountain Lion, however.

It's actually not too hard, but you do need to have admin privileges (using the sudo command to write to /etc).

From Terminal (or your favorite substitute), see if there's anything in the file /etc/launchd.conf:
```
cat /etc/launchd.conf
```
If you get an error like

cat: /etc/launchd.conf: No such file or directory

then continue with the next step. If the cat command does display some content, copy it.
Determine your system's current path, as we'll need to make sure we include it later:
```
launchctl getenv PATH
```
In your favorite editor, create a new text file with the following content, modified to fit your needs:
```
setenv PATH /usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/Users/YourUserName/bin:/path/to/gems/bin
```
Make sure you've included the entire contents of the path from the previous step, otherwise you'll break your system.

If the cat command from Step 1 displayed some content, paste it into the new file before the setenv PATH command. If it already contains a setenv PATH command, just modify it to add the extra directories you need.
Save the new file in your home directory (/Users/YourUserName) as launchd.conf.
Go back to Terminal and enter:
```
sudo mv ~/launchd.conf /etc
```
to use admin power to move the new file to /etc, replacing anything that was there before. Depending on your previous usage of the sudo command, you may get a short "be careful doing what you're doing" message, but either way you'll need to enter your password. /etc is not directly accessible through the Save dialog of graphical editors unless you're a real power user and know how to get around OSX's file system restrictions.
Reboot your computer

And you should be all set. If you're interested, launchd and launchctl use the csh/tcsh syntax, so you can't use the bash/zsh export PATH=/usr/local/bin:... format.

Related Solutions

Bash Environment Variables – Where is My Bash PATH Set?

You might want to trace the full environment load on login. Just an idea.

Since /etc/profile is the first file sourced, you can add to it at the very top a:

set -x
exec 2> /tmp/debug.log

Then open a new terminal and do a bash -l; after that go to the original terminal and remove the lines added (you want to have a working environment, don't you?).

You should end with a full trace of all the steps of the loading_the_bash_environment at /tmp/debug.log. It will be a loooong file.

With that you must be able to locate where the "~/bin" gets into your PATH

I'd look first for a grep of all the files sourced. From your post I bet that the ~/bin in the path is set in a different file of those you've listed.

How to use which(1) with the system’s default $PATH

command -pv uses a "default value for PATH".

$ which ruby
/home/mikel/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p484/bin/ruby

$ command -pv ruby
/usr/bin/ruby

Unfortunately that doesn't work in zsh, so based on Stephane's comment, we could use getconf PATH:

$ PATH=$(getconf PATH) which ruby

or use command -v in place of which, as recommended in Why not use "which"? What to use then?

$ PATH=$(getconf PATH) command -v ruby

The downside with these approaches is that if the system administrator installed a system-wide version into say /usr/local/bin or /opt/local/bin, and all users had that in PATH (e.g. via /etc/profile or /etc/environment or similar), the above probably wouldn't find it.

In your specific case, I'd suggest trying something specific to Ruby. Here's some ideas that might work:

Filter out versions in the user's home directory (and relative paths):

(
    IFS=:
    set -f
    for dir in $PATH; do
        case $dir/ in
            "$HOME/"*) ;;
            /*/)
                if [ -f "$dir/ruby" ] && [ -x "$dir/ruby" ]; then
                    printf '%s\n' "$dir/ruby"
                    break
                fi;;
        esac
    done
)

Filter out versions in the rvm directory

(
    IFS=:
    set -f
    for dir in $PATH; do
        case $dir/ in
            "$rvmpath/"*) ;;
            /*/)
                if [ -f "$dir/ruby" ] && [ -x "$dir/ruby" ]; then
                    printf '%s\n' "$dir/ruby"
                    break
                fi;;
        esac
    done
)

Filter out writeable rubies (last resort, assumes not running as root)

(
    IFS=:
    set -f
    for dir in $PATH; do
        case $dir/ in
            /*/)
                ruby=$dir/ruby
                if [ -f "$ruby" ] && [ -x "$ruby" ] && [ ! -w "$ruby" ]; then
                    printf '%s\n' "$ruby"
                    break
                fi;;
        esac
    done
)

Ask rvm, chruby, etc.

(
    rvm system
    chruby system
    command -v ruby
)

The last way makes rvm select the default Ruby, but we do it in a subshell, so that the user's preferred Ruby is restored afterwards. (chruby part untested.)

Best Answer

Note

Related Solutions

Bash Environment Variables – Where is My Bash PATH Set?

How to use which(1) with the system’s default $PATH

Related Question