Add to the PATH on Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and up

In the process of setting up a new Mac, I installed node.js.  After the node.js installer finished, it recommended to add /usr/local/share/npm/bin to my path.  It turns out there is a very neat way to do this in OS X, the /etc/paths file!  The file contains a list (one per line) of paths that are added to the $PATH variable in the shell. Here are some quick directions to add to the path:

• Open up Terminal.
• Run the following command:

sudo nano /etc/paths

• Enter your password, when prompted.
• Go to the bottom of the file, and enter the path you wish to add.
• Hit control-x to quit.
• Enter “Y” to save the modified buffer.
• That’s it!  To test it, in new terminal window, type:

echo $PATH

You should see something similar to this (including the path you’ve added!):

MacMini:~ ryan$ echo $PATH
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/share/npm/bin

Here is a screenshot of what my file looks like:

Related:
Add to the PATH on Windows 10
How to change environment variables on Windows 10