Unix & Linux: How to correctly add a path to PATH? The Question: I'm wondering where a new path has to be added to the PATH environment variable. I know this can be accomplished by editing .bashrc (for example), but it's not clear how to do this. This way: export PATH=~/opt/bin:$PATH or this? export PATH=$PATH:~/opt/bin Solutions: Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful == This solution helped 89 people == Either way works, but they don't do the same thing: the elements of PATHare checked left to right. In your first example, executables in ~/opt/bin will have precedence over those installed, for example, in /usr/bin, which may or may not be what you want. In particular, from a safety point of view, it is dangerous to add paths to the front, because if someone can gain write access to your ~/opt/bin, they can put, for example, a different ls in there, which you'd then probably use instead of /bin/ls without noticing. Now imagine the same for ssh or your browser or choice... (The same goes triply for putting . in your path.) With thanks & praise to God, and with thanks to the many people who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images: https://stocksnap.io/license & others | With thanks to user Ulrich Schwarz (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/3929), user Steve Brown (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/13023), user simhumileco (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/185096), user Scott (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/23408), user sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/137608), user Paulo Tome (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/40484), user Paolo (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/8115), user Mark (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/184631), user Johan (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/27032), user Jim Bradley (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/102235), user Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/885), user faelx (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/140442), user cjs (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/10489), user Carl Cravens (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/12994), user Brett Ryan (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/5561), user Amit24x7 (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/218315), user AJ. (https://unix.stackexchange.com/users/63677), and the Stack Exchange Network (http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26047). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything is amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.