Exercise

Putting Scripts on the PATH Exercise

Task

Give yourself a scripts directory that every new shell can find, so the scripts you write later run by name.

Hosts: workstation, then servera

Inspect the current PATH

PATH is a list of directories separated by colons. Bash searches them left to right and the first match wins.
```
echo $PATH
```
Find where PATH is already set

Open ~/.bashrc and search for PATH. Red Hat already customizes it here, which is why /home/student/bin is on your list. You are about to do the same thing a few lines lower.
```
less ~/.bashrc
/PATH
```
Read the top of the file too The first thing ~/.bashrc does is . /etc/bashrc. The . reads another file into the current shell, which is how a system-wide setting reaches every user.
Add a directory for this shell only

Create the directory and append it to PATH. Naming $PATH on the right keeps everything that was already there.
```
mkdir -p ~/scripts
PATH=$PATH:~/scripts
echo $PATH
```
Confirm it disappears in a new session

Log out of servera and log back in. Nothing wrote that line to a file, so the new session starts without it.
```
exit
ssh servera
echo $PATH
```
Log out, do not just run bash PATH is exported, so a shell you start from this one inherits your change and appears to keep it. Only a new login proves the change is gone.
Persist it in ~/.bashrc

Add the same line to the end of ~/.bashrc, then log out and back in to confirm a new session picks it up.
```
vim ~/.bashrc
```
```
PATH=$PATH:~/scripts
```
```
exit
ssh servera
echo $PATH
```
This is the pattern for the whole week A change made in the shell lasts until you log out. A change written into ~/.bashrc happens in every new session.

Task

Inspect the current PATH

Find where PATH is already set

Add a directory for this shell only

Confirm it disappears in a new session

Persist it in ~/.bashrc