1.7.7: PATH in Bash shells

Sun Feb 6 20:43:00 GMT 2011

David, thanks for the response.   I put my responses inline...

On 02/06/2011 02:16 PM, David Sastre wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 06, 2011 at 01:33:37PM -0500, Gerry Reno wrote:
>   
>> What is the proper method to set the PATH variable on a system-wide
>> basis in Cygwin?
>>
>> Right now in the Cygwin Bash shell the PATH is set to:
>>
>>     bash-4.1$ echo $PATH
>>     /cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32:/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS:/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/System32/Wb
>>     em:/cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft SQL
>>     Server/90/Tools/binn/:/usr/bin
>>     
> First off, I'm curious about how do you start the bash shell. I ask
> because you don't seem to have PS1 set correctly, and that should be
> automated by startup-scripts. 
>   

I didn't change anything.  This is rather new installation of Cygwin.

I have seen some postinstall script failures on a few packages but would
these be modifying the system-wide PATH variable?

>  
>   
>> I think what I need is for the system-wide PATH to look something like this:
>>
>>     /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/system32:/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS:/cygdrive/c/WINDOWS/System32/Wbem:/cygdrive/c/Program
>>     Files (x86)/Microsoft SQL Server/90/Tools/binn/
>>     
> And that's how it should look like. The fact that you have cygwin's
> paths *after* windows paths in your PATH is something you probably have
> modified by hand.
>   

Nope.  Haven't changed anything about the PATH.

In a new Cygwin Bash shell:

    bash-4.1$ cd ~
    bash-4.1$ grep -ERHn "PATH *=" * .* --exclude-dir=".*"
    cygcheck.txt:24:HOMEPATH = '\Documents and Settings\Administrator'
    .bash_profile:29:#   PATH=${HOME}/bin:${PATH}
    .bash_profile:34:#   MANPATH=${HOME}/man:${MANPATH}
    .bash_profile:39:#   INFOPATH=${HOME}/info:${INFOPATH}
    bash-4.1$
    bash-4.1$ cd /etc
    bash-4.1$ grep -ERHn "PATH *=" * .* --exclude-dir=".*"
    defaults/etc/profile:31:PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH
    defaults/etc/profile:34:MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/man:$MANPATH
    defaults/etc/profile:37:INFOPATH=/usr/local/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/info:$INFO
    PATH
    defaults/etc/skel/.bash_profile:29:#   PATH=${HOME}/bin:${PATH}
    defaults/etc/skel/.bash_profile:34:#   MANPATH=${HOME}/man:${MANPATH}
    defaults/etc/skel/.bash_profile:39:#   INFOPATH=${HOME}/info:${INFOPATH}
    defaults/etc/sshd_config:6:# This sshd was compiled with
    PATH=/bin:/usr/sbin:/sb
    in:/usr/bin
    postinstall/000-cygwin-post-install.sh.done:11:export PATH="/bin:$PATH"
    postinstall/colorgcc.sh.done:5:PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
    postinstall/rsnapshot.sh.done:5:PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin
    profile:32:PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH
    profile:35:MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/man:$MANPATH
    profile:38:INFOPATH=/usr/local/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/info:$INFOPATH
    profile.d/lapack0.sh:14:    export PATH="${PATH}:${LA_BINDIR}"
    profile.d/lapack0.sh:18:  export PATH="${LA_BINDIR}"
    profile.d/openssl.sh:1:export MANPATH="${MANPATH}:/usr/ssl/man"
    rc.d/init.d/postgresql:12:PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sb
    in:/usr/bin
    skel/.bash_profile:29:#   PATH=${HOME}/bin:${PATH}
    skel/.bash_profile:34:#   MANPATH=${HOME}/man:${MANPATH}
    skel/.bash_profile:39:#   INFOPATH=${HOME}/info:${INFOPATH}
    sshd_config:6:# This sshd was compiled with
    PATH=/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin
    bash-4.1$
    bash-4.1$ cat /Cygwin.bat
    @echo off

    C:
    chdir C:\cygwin\bin

    REM bash --verbose --login -i
    bash -i
    pause
    bash-4.1$

I have not changed anything about PATH anywhere.

>  
>   
>> Is the PATH setting I'm looking for workable with Cygwin? 
>>     
> The PATH variable in cygwin is exported from your /etc/profile
> file, which contains a line that sets cygwin's path with higher
> precedence over the PATH inherited from windows.
>   

Yep, I see it.  So why isn't it working?

>   
>> Or do the Windows paths need to come first for some reason?
>>     
> Quite the opposite.
>   

That's what I thought.

>   
>> Is there some guiding document about setting PATH system-wide to better
>> support scripts from Linux?
>>     
>  
> Yes. The info you need is in the bash manpage, INVOCATION section.
>
>   

bash-4.1$ man bash
(END)

No man pages.

How do you get the man page generated?

And here's the tail end of /var/log/setup.log.full:

    2011/02/06 12:01:40 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --norc
    --noprofile /etc/post
    install/coreutils.sh
    2011/02/06 12:01:41 abnormal exit: exit code=128
    2011/02/06 12:01:41 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --norc
    --noprofile /etc/post
    install/bash.sh
    2011/02/06 12:01:41 abnormal exit: exit code=128
    2011/02/06 12:01:41 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --norc
    --noprofile /etc/post
    install/update-info-dir.sh
    2011/02/06 12:02:24 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --norc
    --noprofile /etc/post
    install/libglade2.0.sh
    could not open /etc/xml/catalog for saving
    add command failed
    2011/02/06 12:02:25 abnormal exit: exit code=2
    2011/02/06 12:02:25 Changing gid to Administrators
    2011/02/06 12:03:00 note: Installation Complete
    2011/02/06 12:03:00 Ending cygwin install

Regards,
Gerry

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