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Lets get this out of the way, I did something stupid. Yes, stupid. Very stupid. I am well aware of how stupid this is. I am embarrassed and I regret doing it. Please help. I was installing a program, while also watching TV, and somehow managed to remove /usr/bin from path. NOOOOOO.

I'm using ubuntu 16.04. I added the new program bin to path by typing:

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

The new path was added, but then I tried to update using sudo and I got this error:

The command could not be located because '/usr/bin' is not included in the PATH environment variable.

However, the bin still exists:

 Command 'sudo' is available in '/usr/bin/sudo'

nano in available, ls is available - its all available - but not in path. So, simply trying:

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

and trying to add /usr/bin to path is not an option. Without sudo I dont have permission to open bashrc. I can cd into /usr/bin, but I cant ls anything, and I have no idea how to access sudo or nano once I'm in there. ./sudo, sudo.sh ./sudo.sh all returns "command not found".

How do I add /usr/bin to path in the event I remove it?

EDIT

I found the solution here: I think I accidently deleted the PATH variable

I replaced the PATH with the path of the program I added to my path. So, typing this into a terminal gave me access to sudo and nano again: 

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
Phil_T
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1 Answers1

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You can prefix the commands with the path:

/bin/nano ~/.bashrc

or (for files that need superuser privilege to edit)

/usr/bin/sudo nano /etc/bash.bashrc
steeldriver
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WinEunuuchs2Unix
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  • Yeah, that works too. Thanks. My heart dropped for second when sudo stopped working. – Phil_T Oct 06 '18 at 20:59
  • @N0rbert Sorry I didn't notice any comments when I started writing the answer. It could be we were writing at same time? Also since the user is owner of ~/.bashrc using sudo isn't necessary. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Oct 06 '18 at 21:03