Timeline for What are PATH and other environment variables, and how can I set or use them?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
54 events
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| Jul 27, 2021 at 12:09 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jul 27, 2021 at 12:52 | |||||
| Mar 27, 2017 at 13:32 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Mar 27, 2017 at 13:47 | |||||
| May 10, 2016 at 16:50 | history | edited | Mokubai♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
replacing broken links with archive.org alternatives.
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| S Mar 28, 2015 at 20:07 | history | suggested | tripleee | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Reinstate edit; "export var=value" is not portable on U*x, and there's csh too
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| Mar 28, 2015 at 17:46 | comment | added | tripleee | @G-Man I can now -- thanks for asking (-: Edit suggestion submitted. | |
| Mar 28, 2015 at 17:45 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 28, 2015 at 20:07 | |||||
| S Mar 28, 2015 at 8:52 | history | edited | G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed logic error; added notes; tweaked punctuation, formatting, etc.
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| S Mar 28, 2015 at 8:52 | history | suggested | tripleee | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Revert my recently accepted edit; needs further investigation (see comments).
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| Mar 28, 2015 at 7:57 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 28, 2015 at 8:52 | |||||
| Mar 28, 2015 at 1:08 | comment | added | G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' |
@tripleee I'm not convinced that your edit is correct. "export VAR=value" works for me in dash, and the POSIX man page for export shows the syntax as export name[=word]. Can you provide a reference supporting your claim?
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| S Mar 27, 2015 at 0:33 | history | suggested | tripleee | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
On Linux, "export VAR=value" is not POSIX portable
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| Mar 26, 2015 at 22:37 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Mar 27, 2015 at 0:33 | |||||
| Feb 9, 2015 at 5:58 | comment | added | Melebius |
Quotes are needed when the argument for Windows set command contains spaces. Both following commands will work, the first will make the variable contain the quotes: set FunnyCatPictures="C:\Users\Daniel\Pictures\Funny Cat Pictures" and the second not: set "FunnyCatPictures=C:\Users\Daniel\Pictures\Funny Cat Pictures"
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| Nov 14, 2014 at 8:30 | comment | added | Pacerier | @DanielBeck, Why not? I'm not experiencing any problems. | |
| Nov 13, 2014 at 21:45 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ |
@Pacerier I don't think that's right. There is no sane configuration where PATH equals C:\Program files.
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| Nov 13, 2014 at 20:34 | comment | added | Pacerier | @DanielBeck, Ok, I've edited it. | |
| Nov 13, 2014 at 20:34 | history | edited | Pacerier | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 40 characters in body
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| Nov 12, 2014 at 6:19 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ |
@Pacerier This answer was collaboratively edited, and that section not written by me. That said I just checked and it seems %PATH% by default contains entries referring to folders in C:\Program files, meaning that it evaluates to a string with spaces that needs proper quoting.
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| Nov 12, 2014 at 0:16 | comment | added | Pacerier | @Daniel What do you mean by "note that if %PATH% is included, there will be spaces"? | |
| Apr 22, 2014 at 17:18 | history | wiki removed | Ivo Flipse | ||
| Sep 13, 2013 at 21:18 | comment | added | Ehtesh Choudhury |
I don't think either Rapid Environment Editor or Path Editor are open source. RapidEE license, no license for Path Editor. Perhaps you were thinking of PathEd ?
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| Jun 19, 2013 at 23:29 | history | edited | Drew Noakes | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Consistent use of Windows key icon
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| Jun 3, 2013 at 10:18 | history | edited | Karan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Corrected minor editing error
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| May 30, 2013 at 22:59 | history | edited | Karan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 146 characters in body
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| May 30, 2013 at 22:49 | history | edited | Karan | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Updated Windows section with instructions that should work on XP through to Win8
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| Apr 28, 2013 at 4:20 | history | edited | Ярослав Рахматуллин | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Toned down on the excessive use of formatting constructs in the Linux - OS X sections. I may feel generous enough in the future to do the same for Windows.
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| Feb 17, 2013 at 13:26 | history | edited | slhck | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 187 characters in body
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| Jul 28, 2011 at 8:01 | history | edited | slhck | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 27, 2011 at 9:02 | history | edited | paradroid | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
incorrect SETX syntax; added 2 characters in body
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| May 27, 2011 at 6:07 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Removed the extra brackets.
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| May 25, 2011 at 7:41 | comment | added | slhck | I'd say it's a very elaborate answer that will surely help many people, thanks to all who helped to write it. I don't think we should go into Windows' internals either, that's not what I intended with the question anyway. | |
| May 25, 2011 at 7:24 | comment | added | Mateen Ulhaq | @Daniel I was trying to 'chop' it into shorter sentences (what every English teacher seems to advocate), but I accidentally introduced that mistake. (Fixed, now.) I've also added a suggested 'For example' which might make it easier to understand. It's a bit redundant, though. Maybe you can help integrate it into the post a bit better? | |
| May 25, 2011 at 7:22 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Fixed an error
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| May 25, 2011 at 6:25 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ | @muntoo Thanks for working on this answer. I have to ask though about the wording It specifies the directories in which executable programs are located on the machine. Programs that are located in the directories specified by PATH can be started without knowing and typing the whole path to the file on the command line. — any reason you changed it like you did (aside from grammar issues)? Programs can be located pretty much anywhere, the path only is used for locating; so I disagree with how the first sentence turned out. | |
| May 25, 2011 at 2:23 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added newline
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| May 25, 2011 at 2:17 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 228 characters in body; added 131 characters in body
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| May 25, 2011 at 0:48 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 24, 2011 at 18:23 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ |
@JdeBP You might also notice that the question is rather basic in nature. Carefully explaining the intricacies of how changes to the environment variables are distributed (seriously, WM_SETTINGCHANGE? Windows API? This isn't this question's audience!) might not be a good idea, as it might confuse the reader instead of explaining what these variables are about.
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| May 24, 2011 at 18:19 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ |
@JdeBP The answer you linked to doesn't really apply in this case, since you talked about setting the values in the registry. Setting via dialog will broadcast that WM_SETTINGCHANGE I imagine, and therefore notify interested parties about the new values. That's why I asked how it applied here. Making something boldface doesn't change its meaning and neither makes it easier to understand, just like repeating the same sentence, only louder. Also, I edited this post a few hours ago to specifically mention that the values the processes receive are set when they are launched.
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| May 24, 2011 at 18:15 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ | @JdeBP The section title was meant to reference how to set these values on the user interface, which is called shell on Windows, in contrast to the section following, command-line interface. I edited this before I even saw your comment 10 hours ago. Noone ever mentioned that this applied only to Explorer. | |
| May 24, 2011 at 11:15 | comment | added | JdeBP | The point is fairly clearly made. Here it is in boldface: These are not environment variables, merely a template from which environment variables are constructed, and they are not confined solely to Microsoft Windows Explorer (the "shell"). | |
| May 24, 2011 at 8:07 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ | @JdeBP I don't understand how this applies here, as the user mentioned it didn't work with editing the registry, but did work when editing using the dialog. What's your point? | |
| May 24, 2011 at 7:27 | history | edited | Daniel Beck♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added section why one would want to create new environment variables
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| May 24, 2011 at 7:19 | history | edited | Daniel Beck♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added to initial explanation, fixed USERNAME/USERPROFILE for Windows, expanded OS X section
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| May 24, 2011 at 7:11 | comment | added | JdeBP | What you describe as "Shell" are not environment variables. Nor do they apply solely to Windows Explorer. That is an environment variable template, which any program that understands the protocol can participate in using. See this ServerFault answer. | |
| May 24, 2011 at 3:24 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 24, 2011 at 3:10 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 17, 2011 at 4:05 | comment | added | Daniel Beck♦ | @paradroid Nice, didn't know that (not a Windows user). This topic is community wiki, you can go ahead and just edit in that information. | |
| May 16, 2011 at 23:58 | comment | added | paradroid |
On Windows Vista onwards you can use SETX to make permanent changes. It has a slightly different syntax. SETX has to be added from the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit for earlier versions of NT.
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| May 16, 2011 at 23:51 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Grammar freak was here
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| May 16, 2011 at 23:42 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Grammar freak was here; added 8 characters in body
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| May 16, 2011 at 23:35 | history | edited | Mateen Ulhaq | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 16, 2011 at 19:02 | history | edited | slhck | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added headings
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| May 16, 2011 at 18:44 | history | answered | Daniel Beck♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |