Solaris – permanently update PATH for all users

pathsolaris

I have installed JDK and Groovy on my Solaris 11 machine. I would now like to set things up so that the PATH variable would contain the bin directories whenever I open a shell.

It is my understanding that the following lines added at the end of the /etc/profile file should do the trick.

JAVA_HOME=/usr/jdk/instances/jdk1.7.0
PATH=${PATH}:${JAVA_HOME}/bin

GROOVY_HOME=/usr/local/bin/groovy-2.1.3
PATH=${PATH}:${GROOVY_HOME}/bin

export PATH

However, when I restart my putty session, only the JAVA_HOME and GROOVY_HOME variables are affected. The PATH variable stays the same, e.g. 

/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

I am wondering if there is another script that runs after /etc/profile, that might override the PATH variable. But I have no idea where to look.

Or is there another problem?

As porposed in a comment, I tried to use the following lines instead, but unfortunatelly with the same effect.

JAVA_HOME=/usr/jdk/instances/jdk1.7.0
GROOVY_HOME=/usr/local/bin/groovy-2.1.3
export PATH=${PATH}:${GROOVY_HOME}/bin:${JAVA_HOME}/bin

Best Answer

Check /etc/default/login for login shells. You can force an initial path there.

Adding your variables to /etc/profile should work, depending on the version of Solaris running. A more portable, for Solaris, way of doing it would be to separate setting the PATH variable and exporting it. 

JAVA_HOME=/usr/jdk/instances/jdk1.7.0
GROOVY_HOME=/usr/local/bin/groovy-2.1.3
PATH=${PATH}:${GROOVY_HOME}/bin:${JAVA_HOME}/bin
export PATH

Solaris 11, where bash is the default shell will work ok with your profile, but older Solaris version may not parse the export PATH=... syntax as expected, or at all.

Also, keep in mind that you're only changing the initial PATH for users. /etc/profile is read before a user's .profile is read.

By default, Solaris users will usually end up with their own .profile file that contains a default PATH.

solaris:~$ grep PATH .*
.profile:export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

Since this .profile is being read in after the /etc/profile that you've modified, your changes to $PATH will be discarded and the user's entries will take over.

You can add these changes for new users by editing the file /etc/skel/.profile, but to make the changes permanent for existing users, you would need to edit their individual .profiles, or overwrite them if they haven't edited them themselves.

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