How to Add a Directory to the PATH Variable in Bash

If you ever wanted to install something from source, or create handy scripts to use anywhere in bash, you’ll need to update the PATH variable. Simply put, the PATH variable is a string consisting of colon-separated (:) directories. Whenever you type a command into the terminal, all of these directories are checked for executables that match the command you typed.

Now, let’s say we have a directory we created, ~/.bin/ which contains our homemade scripts/executables. To add this to PATH, we just need to update our .bashrc file. Edit this file with nano nano ~/.bashrc (or vim if you’re cool 😎). Now, just add to the end of the file the following:

export PATH="$PATH:~/.bin"

After that, either exit out and re-open bash or type source ~/.bashrc to update bash. (You only need to do this once).

Congratulations! You have now updated your PATH variable. Now, any executable you put in ~/.bin will be runnable from the terminal by default.