So, what I am trying to do is to create a personal bin directory at my home folder. I created the following folder:
/Users/thi/bin
I put my scripts in this folder, but if I type in the Terminal:
myScript
It doesn't run.
I was told I have to export this bin path, something related to echo $PATH, but I don't know how to do it.
You need to add the following to file ~/.profile:
export PATH=/Users/thi/bin:$PATH
Then source ~/.profile
Note, that you may need to create this file, and because it begins with a . it might not be visible in the finder for editing via an application like a text editor. To list all files including hidden ones, use:
ls -la ~/
$HOME/bin instead of /Users/thi/bin. You'll then be able to copy your settings to another machine, where your user name is perhaps different.
.profile file.
export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH to my $HOME/.bash_profile.
If you use bash, add a line like this to ~/.bash_profile:
PATH=~/bin:$PATH
PATH is marked for export by default, so you don't need to use export.
If both ~/.bash_profile and ~/.profile exist, bash only reads ~/.bash_profile when it is invoked as an interactive login shell. ~/.profile is also used by other shells that might not understand the same configuration options as bash.
Terminal and iTerm 2 open new shells as login shells by default. When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, it reads ~/.bash_profile but not ~/.bashrc. The terminal emulators on other platforms often open new shells as non-login shells, so for example bash reads ~/.bashrc but not ~/.bash_profile. OS X users often use ~/.bash_profile as the personal configuration file corresponding to ~/.bashrc on other platforms, but it is also common to source ~/.bashrc from ~/.bash_profile or to tell Terminal or iTerm 2 to open new shells as non-login shells.
You can also change the path more globally in /etc/paths or /etc/launchd.conf, but in many contexts the path will still default to /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin. And I have only really needed to change the path in shells and text editors.
export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH to my $HOME/.bash_profile.
~ (when unquoted) and $HOME are expanded before the variable assignment both when using export or a plain assignment.
.bash_profile or .profile? Or you have a .bashrc in your home directory?
. ~/.bashrc. New shells are opened as non-login shells in the shell mode in emacs and in tmux. I wouldn't use .profile as my main configuration file, because it is also read by other shells like ksh.
You typically would put additional paths after $PATH like PATH=$PATH:/$HOME/bin because if you don't want to supersede another executable with the same name that might be in /bin, etc.
$HOME/bin at the beginning exactly for that reason. But the key thing is that the order of directories in $PATH matters and that the shell will pick the first matching command. Thanks for pointing this out.