[SOLVED] HOME directory is first in PATH

[Kyowash]

I've noticed my HOME directory will be the first to be searched for executable files:

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$ echo "$PATH"
/home/kyowash/bin:/home/kyowash/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games

Is this safe? Wouldn't that mean that if there's a malicious executable file with the same name as a command ($HOME/bin/ls for instance) the malicious one would be run instead?
Thanks in advance.

[Flemur]

I've noticed my HOME directory will the first to be searched for executable files:
[...
Is this safe?

It's not a good idea. It's set in your
~/.profile
file, (and /etc/skel/.profile) you can change it there (= ~/.profile = /home/username/.profile)

I was getting some bogus entries in the $PATH (/snap or something like that, and ~/.local/bin), and the ~/bin in the wrong place, so I hard-coded in the whole thing in my .profile.

You could put this line at the end of your .profile and fix everything:

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PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/home/kyowash/bin:/home/kyowash/.local/bin"

Assuming you have a ~/.local/bin, which I don't.

[Kyowash]

I've noticed my HOME directory will the first to be searched for executable files:
[...
Is this safe?

It's not a good idea. It's set in your
~/.profile
file, (and /etc/skel/.profile) you can change it there (= ~/.profile = /home/username/.profile)

I was getting some bogus entries in the $PATH (/snap or something like that, and ~/.local/bin), and the ~/bin in the wrong place, so I hard-coded in the whole thing in my .profile.

You could put this line at the end of your .profile and fix everything:

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PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/home/kyowash/bin:/home/kyowash/.local/bin"

Assuming you have a ~/.local/bin, which I don't.

I have this at the end of the ~/.profile file:

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# set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories
PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

It's concatenating the variable rather than specifying the whole PATH. Would it be enough to change it to this?

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PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin"

[Flemur]

I have this at the end of the ~/.profile file:

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# set PATH so it includes user's private bin directories
PATH="$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

It's concatenating the variable rather than specifying the whole PATH. Would it be enough to change it to this?

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PATH="$PATH:$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin"

That would work - you might want to check that you have the "$HOME/.local/bin" directory.

Although apparently it doesn't matter much if there are extraneous entries in the PATH, but I often run a script which searches in the PATH and was getting error msgs about the non-existent directories I mentioned above.

[Kyowash]

That would work - you might want to check that you have the "$HOME/.local/bin" directory.

Although apparently it doesn't matter much if there are extraneous entries in the PATH, but I often run a script which searches in the PATH and was getting error msgs about the non-existent directories I mentioned above.

Okay, I'll keep it in mind. Thank you for your help, Flemur.