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This is somewhat of a noob question but I'm having problems adding to my path and can't remember how I got changes working the last time I did it.

So I'm using the command "export PATH=$PATH:/Users/evanmcdonnal/go/bin" to modify my path. Then I use echo $PATH and it displays my previous path with the above appended. The problem is, when I quit the terminal and open it again the changes are gone. Is there something I'm missing here that is necessary for it to make the changes permanent? I tried editing the paths file in etc directly but the OS won't let me without root privileges and it seems like a bit of a hassle to obtain those.

Nifle
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evanmcdonnal
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1 Answers1

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You need to add this line to the file .bash_profile in your home directory to have this modification of PATH apply to all Terminal/bash sessions.

Daniel Beck
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    .bash_profile does not exist on my system. Neither does .profile Should I create it? If so what is the syntax for specifying the path? – evanmcdonnal Feb 15 '12 at 07:22
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    Create it if it doesn't exist. The syntax is identical to what you run on the command line, as it just gets executed upon start of a login shell session. – Daniel Beck Feb 15 '12 at 07:32