How to add usr/local/bin to path environment variable on ubuntu 12.0.4?

Question

I have just installed ruby.1.8.6 on Ubuntu 12.0.4.

I am learning ruby out of a book and after the installation process it says

"Once it's completed, you should add /usr/local/bin to your PATH environment variable. I'll assume that, being a Linux user"

And I'm stuck as the guy has a wrong assumption.

How do I add usr/local/bin to the path environment variable?

Solution 1

You can add this to your ~/.bashrc file:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

If you don't know how, you can just execute this line in a Terminal:

echo "PATH=\$PATH:/usr/local/bin" >> ~/.bashrc

You can also check what's in your PATH by typing in the Terminal

echo $PATH

Solution 2

for the current terminal session, you can:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin

For a more permanent solution, edit ~/.bashrc and add the line above