Racket: Setting The Mac OS PATH

Beautiful Racket: Setting the Mac OS PATH https://beautifulracket.com/setting-the-mac-os-path.
html
beautiful racket
Setting the Mac OS PATH

what is path?
PATH is a system-level variable that holds a list of directories. When you
enter a command in the terminal, it’s shorthand for a program with the same
name. The system looks in each of the PATH directories for the program
corresponding to the command. When it finds a matching program, it runs it.
If it doesn’t find a match, it raises an error.
To see the PATH on your system, open the terminal window and enter this
command (where sh$ represents the terminal prompt, which will be different
on your system):
sh$ echo $PATH
Type return to complete the command. The result will be a list of directo-
ries separated by : that looks like this:
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin
The exact list may be different on your system. Now try this:
sh$ which echo

/bin/echo
This tells us that the echo command (which prints a value to the terminal)
actually invokes the program located at /bin/echo . The terminal finds this
program by looking for echo in each of the PATH directories, one of which is
/bin .
We can always invoke a command by using its full path rather than the short-
1 of 4 4/12/19, 9:27 AM
Beautiful Racket: Setting the Mac OS PATH https://beautifulracket.com/setting-the-mac-os-path.html
hand:
sh$ /bin/echo $PATH

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin
In this case, the terminal doesn’t look in the PATH directories for echo ,
because we’ve already provided a full path to echo .
The which command shows us the full path corresponding to a command.

We can even do this:
sh$ which which

/usr/bin/which
If we enter a command name that doesn’t exist in any PATH directory, we get
an error:
sh$ racket
-bash: racket: command not found
Our goal is to add the directory containing racket to our PATH . Then the
terminal will be able to find it.
updating path
First, check that your Racket installation works by going into your new Racket
directory and launching DrRacket. If DrRacket works, then your Racket instal-
lation is sound.
Next, check that you know the full path to the bin subdirectory of your new
Racket directory. If you put this directory in Applications as recom-
mended, the path will be:
/Applications/Racket v7.2/bin
If you installed or moved it elsewhere, the path will be different. For instance,
it can be convenient to remove the version number from the name of Racket’s
installation directory, like so:
2 of 4 4/12/19, 9:27 AM
/Applications/Racket/bin
This way, you can update Racket in the future without changing the rest of the
configuration below.
Either way, we’ll refer to this Racket path as /YOUR/PATH/TO/bin . So when

you see /YOUR/PATH/TO/bin in commands below, substitute your actual
path to the Racket bin subdirectory.
You can test this path from the terminal: append /racket to the path and
enter it as a command. This should start Racket (include the surrounding
double quotes around the whole thing):
sh$ "/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin/racket"
Welcome to Racket v.7.2.
>
If this doesn’t work, either the path to Racket is mistyped, or there’s an error
in your Racket installation.
If it does work, type ctrl+D or (exit) to quit Racket. Next, you need to
add this path to the "/etc/paths.d" directory on your system, which
affects the system PATH variable. You can do this with the following one-line
terminal command, which will ask you for your password (again, substitute
/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin with your actual path, and include the surrounding
double quotes):
sh$ sudo sh -c 'echo "/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin" >> /etc/paths.d

/racket'
This command puts the path to Racket in a new file called

/etc/paths.d/racket , which will be automatically loaded in the future.
testing path
To check that your PATH has been updated correctly, open a new terminal
window and try echo $PATH again:
sh$ echo $PATH
3 of 4 4/12/19, 9:27 AM
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin
This time, you should see your Racket bin subdirectory at the end of the
PATH list of directories.
If so, you can now try which racket :
sh$ which racket

/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin/racket
If that works, then you’re home free. Type racket and you should see some-
thing like this:
sh$ racket
Welcome to Racket v.7.2.
>
If so, all is well. The > is the command prompt for Racket. Type ctrl+D or
(exit) to quit Racket.
4 of 4 4/12/19, 9:27 AM

Racket: Setting The Mac OS PATH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Racket: Setting The Mac OS PATH

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Racket: Setting The Mac OS PATH

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Beautiful Racket: Setting the Mac OS PATH https://beautifulracket.com/setting-the-mac-os-path.

Setting the Mac OS PATH

sh$ echo $PATH

sh$ which echo

sh$ /bin/echo $PATH

The which command shows us the full path corresponding to a command.

sh$ which which

Either way, we’ll refer to this Racket path as /YOUR/PATH/TO/bin . So when

sh$ sudo sh -c 'echo "/YOUR/PATH/TO/bin" >> /etc/paths.d

This command puts the path to Racket in a new file called

sh$ echo $PATH

If so, you can now try which racket :

sh$ which racket

You might also like