bash Cookbook

Forgetting That the Current Directory Is Not in the $PATH

Problem

You’ve got your script all written and want to try it out—you even remembered to add the execute permissions to the script, but when you go to run the script you get an error message:

$ my.script
bash: my.script: command not found
$

Solution

Either add the current directory to the $PATH variable, which we do not recommend, or reference the script via the current directory with a leading ./ before the script name, as in:

$ ./my.script

Discussion

It is a common mistake for beginners to forget to add the leading ./ to the script that they want to execute. We have had a lot of discussion about the $PATH variable, so we won’t repeat ourselves here except to remind you of a solution for frequently used scripts.

A common practice is to keep your useful and often-used scripts in a directory called bin inside of your home directory, and to add that bin directory to your $PATH variable so that you can execute those scripts without needing the leading ./.

The important part about adding your own bin directory to your $PATH variable is to place the change that modifies your $PATH variable in the right startup script. You don’t want it in the .bashrc script because that gets invoked by every subshell, which would mean that your path would get added to every time you “shell out” of an editor, or run some other commands. You don’t need repeated copies your bin directory in the $PATH variable.

Instead, put it in the appropriate login profile ...