How do I manipulate $PATH elements in shell script

Question

Is there a idiomatic way of removing elements from PATH-like shell variables?

That is I want to take

PATH=/home/joe/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/path/to/app/bin:.

and remove or replace the /path/to/app/bin without clobbering the rest of the variable. Extra points for allowing me put new elements in arbitrary positions. The target will be recognizable by a well defined string, and may occur at any point in the list.

I know I've seen this done, and can probably cobble something together on my own, but I'm looking for a nice approach. Portability and standardization a plus.

I use bash, but example are welcome in your favorite shell as well.

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The context here is one of needing to switch conveniently between multiple versions (one for doing analysis, another for working on the framework) of a large scientific analysis package which produces a couple dozen executables, has data stashed around the filesystem, and uses environment variable to help find all this stuff. I would like to write a script that selects a version, and need to be able to remove the $PATH elements relating to the currently active version and replace them with the same elements relating to the new version.

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This is related to the problem of preventing repeated $PATH elements when re-running login scripts and the like.

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• Previous similar question: How to keep from duplicating path variable in csh
• Subsequent similar question: What is the most elegant way to remove a path from the $PATH variable in Bash?

Answer 1

In line with dj_segfault's answer, I do this in scripts that append/prepend environment variables that might be executed multiple times:

ld_library_path=${ORACLE_HOME}/lib
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH//${ld_library_path}?(:)/}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${ld_library_path}${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}

Using this same technique to remove, replace or manipulate entries in PATH is trivial given the filename-expansion-like pattern matching and pattern-list support of shell parameter expansion.

Answer 2

suppose

echo $PATH
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0/bin:lib/jvm/java-1.6.0/bin/:/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0/bin/:/usr/lib/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/lib/ccache:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/home/tvnadeesh/bin

If you want to remove /lib/jvm/java-1.6.0/bin/ do like as below

export PATH=$(echo $PATH | sed  's/\/lib\/jvm\/java-1.6.0\/bin\/://g')

sed will take input from echo $PATH and replace /lib/jvm/java-1.6.0/bin/: with empty

in this way you can remove

Answer 3

OK, thanks to all responders. I've prepared an encapsulated version of florin's answer. The first pass looks like this:

# path_tools.bash
#
# A set of tools for manipulating ":" separated lists like the
# canonical $PATH variable.
#
# /bin/sh compatibility can probably be regained by replacing $( )
# style command expansion with ` ` style
###############################################################################
# Usage:
#
# To remove a path:
#    replace-path         PATH $PATH /exact/path/to/remove    
#    replace-path-pattern PATH $PATH <grep pattern for target path>    
#
# To replace a path:
#    replace-path         PATH $PATH /exact/path/to/remove /replacement/path   
#    replace-path-pattern PATH $PATH <target pattern> /replacement/path
#    
###############################################################################
# Finds the _first_ list element matching $2
#
#    $1 name of a shell variable to be set
#    $2 name of a variable with a path-like structure
#    $3 a grep pattern to match the desired element of $1
function path-element-by-pattern (){ 
    target=$1;
    list=$2;
    pat=$3;

    export $target=$(echo -n $list | tr ":" "\n" | grep -m 1 $pat);
    return
}

# Removes or replaces an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (i.e. PATH) 
#   $2 a ":" delimited list to work from (i.e. $PATH)
#   $2 the precise string to be removed/replaced
#   $3 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace-path () {
    path=$1;
    list=$2;
    removestr=$3;
    replacestr=$4; # Allowed to be ""

    export $path=$(echo -n $list | tr ":" "\n" | sed "s|$removestr|$replacestr|" | tr "\n" ":" | sed "s|::|:|g");
    unset removestr
    return 
}

# Removes or replaces an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (i.e. PATH) 
#   $2 a ":" delimited list to work from (i.e. $PATH)
#   $2 a grep pattern identifying the element to be removed/replaced
#   $3 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace-path-pattern () {
    path=$1;
    list=$2;
    removepat=$3; 
    replacestr=$4; # Allowed to be ""

    path-element-by-pattern removestr $list $removepat;
    replace-path $path $list $removestr $replacestr;
}

Still needs error trapping in all the functions, and I should probably stick in a repeated path solution while I'm at it.

You use it by doing a . /include/path/path_tools.bash in the working script and calling on of the the replace-path* functions.

---

I am still open to new and/or better answers.

Answer 4

For deleting an element you can use sed:

#!/bin/bash
NEW_PATH=$(echo -n $PATH | tr ":" "\n" | sed "/foo/d" | tr "\n" ":")
export PATH=$NEW_PATH

will delete the paths that contain "foo" from the path.

You could also use sed to insert a new line before or after a given line.

Edit: you can remove duplicates by piping through sort and uniq:

echo -n $PATH | tr ":" "\n" | sort | uniq -c | sed -n "/ 1 / s/.*1 \(.*\)/\1/p" | sed "/foo/d" | tr "\n" ":"

Answer 5

• Order of PATH is not distrubed
• Handles corner cases like empty path, space in path gracefully
• Partial match of dir does not give false positives
• Treats path at head and tail of PATH in proper ways. No : garbage and such.

Say you have /foo:/some/path:/some/path/dir1:/some/path/dir2:/bar and you want to replace /some/path Then it correctly replaces "/some/path" but leaves "/some/path/dir1" or "/some/path/dir2", as what you would expect.

function __path_add(){  
    if [ -d "$1" ] ; then  
        local D=":${PATH}:";   
        [ "${D/:$1:/:}" == "$D" ] && PATH="$PATH:$1";  
        PATH="${PATH/#:/}";  
        export PATH="${PATH/%:/}";  
    fi  
}
function __path_remove(){  
    local D=":${PATH}:";  
    [ "${D/:$1:/:}" != "$D" ] && PATH="${D/:$1:/:}";  
    PATH="${PATH/#:/}";  
    export PATH="${PATH/%:/}";  
}  
# Just for the shake of completeness
function __path_replace(){  
    if [ -d "$2" ] ; then  
        local D=":${PATH}:";   
        if [ "${D/:$1:/:}" != "$D" ] ; then
            PATH="${D/:$1:/:$2:}";  
            PATH="${PATH/#:/}";  
            export PATH="${PATH/%:/}";  
        fi
    fi  
}  

Related post What is the most elegant way to remove a path from the $PATH variable in Bash?

Answer 6

Addressing the proposed solution from dmckee:

1. While some versions of Bash may allow hyphens in function names, others (MacOS X) do not.
2. I don't see a need to use return immediately before the end of the function.
3. I don't see the need for all the semi-colons.
4. I don't see why you have path-element-by-pattern export a value. Think of export as equivalent to setting (or even creating) a global variable - something to be avoided whenever possible.
5. I'm not sure what you expect 'replace-path PATH $PATH /usr' to do, but it does not do what I would expect.

Consider a PATH value that starts off containing:

.
/Users/jleffler/bin
/usr/local/postgresql/bin
/usr/local/mysql/bin
/Users/jleffler/perl/v5.10.0/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/sw/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

The result I got (from 'replace-path PATH $PATH /usr') is:

.
/Users/jleffler/bin
/local/postgresql/bin
/local/mysql/bin
/Users/jleffler/perl/v5.10.0/bin
/local/bin
/bin
/bin
/sw/bin
/sbin
/sbin

I would have expected to get my original path back since /usr does not appear as a (complete) path element, only as part of a path element.

This can be fixed in replace-path by modifying one of the sed commands:

export $path=$(echo -n $list | tr ":" "\n" | sed "s:^$removestr\$:$replacestr:" |
               tr "\n" ":" | sed "s|::|:|g")

I used ':' instead of '|' to separate parts of the substitute since '|' could (in theory) appear in a path component, whereas by definition of PATH, a colon cannot. I observe that the second sed could eliminate the current directory from the middle of a PATH. That is, a legitimate (though perverse) value of PATH could be:

PATH=/bin::/usr/local/bin

After processing, the current directory would no longer be on the PATH.

A similar change to anchor the match is appropriate in path-element-by-pattern:

export $target=$(echo -n $list | tr ":" "\n" | grep -m 1 "^$pat\$")

I note in passing that grep -m 1 is not standard (it is a GNU extension, also available on MacOS X). And, indeed, the-n option for echo is also non-standard; you would be better off simply deleting the trailing colon that is added by virtue of converting the newline from echo into a colon. Since path-element-by-pattern is used just once, has undesirable side-effects (it clobbers any pre-existing exported variable called $removestr), it can be replaced sensibly by its body. This, along with more liberal use of quotes to avoid problems with spaces or unwanted file name expansion, leads to:

# path_tools.bash
#
# A set of tools for manipulating ":" separated lists like the
# canonical $PATH variable.
#
# /bin/sh compatibility can probably be regained by replacing $( )
# style command expansion with ` ` style
###############################################################################
# Usage:
#
# To remove a path:
#    replace_path         PATH $PATH /exact/path/to/remove
#    replace_path_pattern PATH $PATH <grep pattern for target path>
#
# To replace a path:
#    replace_path         PATH $PATH /exact/path/to/remove /replacement/path
#    replace_path_pattern PATH $PATH <target pattern> /replacement/path
#
###############################################################################

# Remove or replace an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (e.g. PATH)
#   $2 a ":" delimited list to work from (e.g. $PATH)
#   $3 the precise string to be removed/replaced
#   $4 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace_path () {
    path=$1
    list=$2
    remove=$3
    replace=$4        # Allowed to be empty or unset

    export $path=$(echo "$list" | tr ":" "\n" | sed "s:^$remove\$:$replace:" |
                   tr "\n" ":" | sed 's|:$||')
}

# Remove or replace an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (e.g. PATH)
#   $2 a ":" delimited list to work from (e.g. $PATH)
#   $3 a grep pattern identifying the element to be removed/replaced
#   $4 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace_path_pattern () {
    path=$1
    list=$2
    removepat=$3
    replacestr=$4        # Allowed to be empty or unset

    removestr=$(echo "$list" | tr ":" "\n" | grep -m 1 "^$removepat\$")
    replace_path "$path" "$list" "$removestr" "$replacestr"
}

I have a Perl script called echopath which I find useful when debugging problems with PATH-like variables:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#
#   "@(#)$Id: echopath.pl,v 1.7 1998/09/15 03:16:36 jleffler Exp $"
#
#   Print the components of a PATH variable one per line.
#   If there are no colons in the arguments, assume that they are
#   the names of environment variables.

@ARGV = $ENV{PATH} unless @ARGV;

foreach $arg (@ARGV)
{
    $var = $arg;
    $var = $ENV{$arg} if $arg =~ /^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9]*$/;
    $var = $arg unless $var;
    @lst = split /:/, $var;
    foreach $val (@lst)
    {
            print "$val\n";
    }
}

When I run the modified solution on the test code below:

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path xpath $xpath /usr
echopath $xpath

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path_pattern xpath $xpath /usr/bin /work/bin
echopath xpath

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path_pattern xpath $xpath "/usr/.*/bin" /work/bin
echopath xpath

The output is:

.
/Users/jleffler/bin
/usr/local/postgresql/bin
/usr/local/mysql/bin
/Users/jleffler/perl/v5.10.0/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/sw/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

.
/Users/jleffler/bin
/usr/local/postgresql/bin
/usr/local/mysql/bin
/Users/jleffler/perl/v5.10.0/bin
/usr/local/bin
/work/bin
/bin
/sw/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

.
/Users/jleffler/bin
/work/bin
/usr/local/mysql/bin
/Users/jleffler/perl/v5.10.0/bin
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/sw/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin

This looks correct to me - at least, for my definition of what the problem is.

I note that echopath LD_LIBRARY_PATH evaluates $LD_LIBRARY_PATH. It would be nice if your functions were able to do that, so the user could type:

replace_path PATH /usr/bin /work/bin

That can be done by using:

list=$(eval echo '$'$path)

This leads to this revision of the code:

# path_tools.bash
#
# A set of tools for manipulating ":" separated lists like the
# canonical $PATH variable.
#
# /bin/sh compatibility can probably be regained by replacing $( )
# style command expansion with ` ` style
###############################################################################
# Usage:
#
# To remove a path:
#    replace_path         PATH /exact/path/to/remove
#    replace_path_pattern PATH <grep pattern for target path>
#
# To replace a path:
#    replace_path         PATH /exact/path/to/remove /replacement/path
#    replace_path_pattern PATH <target pattern> /replacement/path
#
###############################################################################

# Remove or replace an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (e.g. PATH)
#   $2 the precise string to be removed/replaced
#   $3 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace_path () {
    path=$1
    list=$(eval echo '$'$path)
    remove=$2
    replace=$3            # Allowed to be empty or unset

    export $path=$(echo "$list" | tr ":" "\n" | sed "s:^$remove\$:$replace:" |
                   tr "\n" ":" | sed 's|:$||')
}

# Remove or replace an element of $1
#
#   $1 name of the shell variable to set (e.g. PATH)
#   $2 a grep pattern identifying the element to be removed/replaced
#   $3 the replacement string (use "" for removal)
function replace_path_pattern () {
    path=$1
    list=$(eval echo '$'$path)
    removepat=$2
    replacestr=$3            # Allowed to be empty or unset

    removestr=$(echo "$list" | tr ":" "\n" | grep -m 1 "^$removepat\$")
    replace_path "$path" "$removestr" "$replacestr"
}

The following revised test now works too:

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path xpath /usr
echopath xpath

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path_pattern xpath /usr/bin /work/bin
echopath xpath

echo
xpath=$PATH
replace_path_pattern xpath "/usr/.*/bin" /work/bin
echopath xpath

It produces the same output as before.