PATH.md

PATH: getting it, adding to it and managing it

The PATH is a semi-colon separated list of locations that the OS will search when trying to lcoate an executable program.

Getting it

To get the current PATH environment variable:

$env:path

(or in cmd.exe just %path%, or in Windows, see Environment variables -- view/edit them on windows)

To split the path into its constituents:

$env:path.Split(";")

or

$env:path.Split(";", [System.StringSplitOptions]::RemoveEmptyEntries)

Adding to it

To add a folder to the PATH, only for the current session:

$env:path += [System.IO.Path]::PathSeparator + $NewPath

(To get the current folder: $NewPath = Get-Location

To persist the current session's path (requires admin)

[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable( "Path", $env:Path, [System.EnvironmentVariableTarget]::Machine )

See also

• Environment variables -- view/edit them on windows