Reset your PATH variable

Question

I stuffed up (basically wiped) my PATH variable.

Is there any way to reset it to the default?

I look at this link on superuser, but I find it very confusing. As far as I know I stuffed up my ~/.profile file.

Answer 1

I have the following in my ~/.profile:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin
PATH=$PATH:~/bin

The first PATH declaration overrides any existing PATH setting (it doesn't include $PATH). The path used is the OS X default.

The second line appends ~/bin to the PATH and it is a personal preference, not a default.

After edit, restart your session — or use command source ~/.profile to activate the changes immediately.

Answer 2

The file can have the name .bash_profile or .profile - one solution could be to rename the file e.g. mv ~/.bash_profile ~/.bash_prolile.old and then restart your machine and see if it helped.

You can also try to edit the file, and then maybe you'll see the wrong PATH, which you then can edit.