The Author – Bart Busschots
Creative Commons
Unless otherwise stated, the content on this site is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works 3.0 License
Dec
21
TTT Part 13 of n – PATH
Filed Under Computers & Tech, System Administration on December 21, 2013 | 6 Comments
In the previous instalment we introduced the concept of the command shell environment, and we looked in detail at how shell and environment variables work. In this instalment we’ll focus on probably the single most important environment variable, PATH. We’ll look at what it does, how it’s initialised, and, in the process, we’ll learn how to make persistent customisations to our shell environment.
Dec
14
TTT Part 12 of n – the Environment
Filed Under Computers & Tech, System Administration on December 14, 2013 | 2 Comments
Given the times we live in, the word ‘environment’ probably invokes images of polar bears and melting ice, but the Al Gore definition of the word ‘environment’ is a relatively recent narrow definition of a much broader word. The first definition of the work in the OS X dictionary is:
The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates
In this instalment we’ll introduce a digital extension of this concept – the digital conditions within which a process exists, and specifically, in which a BASH command shell exists. Although this might sound like a simple topic, there’s actually a lot to cover, so we’ll be spreading it out over a few instalments.