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

Question

I have a severe problem today: when I type ifconfig it does not show ip configuration on ubuntu 12.04. Can anyone help me on this?

Here is the result of ifconfig:

Command 'ifconfig' is available in '/sbin/ifconfig'
The command could not be located because '/sbin' is not included in the PATH environment variable.
This is most likely caused by the lack of administrative privileges associated with your user account.
ifconfig: command not found

Do you have superuser privileges? – jobin Mar 12 '14 at 08:37 — jobin, Mar 12 '14 at 08:37
Jobin i have super user priveleges. – Farooq Mar 12 '14 at 08:59 — Farooq, Mar 12 '14 at 08:59
What is the output of echo $PATH? – Braiam Mar 12 '14 at 16:45 — Braiam, Mar 12 '14 at 16:45

score 33 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 12 '14 at 09:27

33

You can do either of the following:

Open your ~/.bashrc file and write the following to the end:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/sbin
```

and then do source ~/.bashrc or open a new terminal instance.

or open your /etc/environment and add /sbin to end of the PATH variable, so that is as follows:
```
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/games:/sbin"
```

edited Mar 12 '14 at 09:27

Danatela

13,243
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answered Mar 12 '14 at 09:20

jobin

27,708

Avinash Raj · Answer 2 · 2014-03-12T16:49:40.850

3

Add /sbin to the system path by running,

export PATH=$PATH:/sbin

If you follow @nux's answer, you have to create symbolic links for all the command files which are presented inside /sbin directory.But if you follow this or @jobin's answer, you don't need to go for that.

edited Mar 12 '14 at 16:49

answered Mar 12 '14 at 08:41

Avinash Raj

78,556

2

You don't need to source when you export on the terminal. – jobin Mar 12 '14 at 09:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited May 07 '20 at 13:17

2

You'll need to add /sbin to your path environment variable

Create a new file in /etc/profile.d/custom-envs.sh (file must ends with .sh)

set the following file content:
```
export PATH=$PATH:/sbin
```

Add execute permissions

sudo chmod +x /etc/profile.d/custom-envs.sh

To apply changes, you'll need to logout and login again

edited May 07 '20 at 13:17

Jossef Harush Kadouri

4,646

answered Mar 27 '16 at 11:04

VeLKerr

233

score -8 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '14 at 08:35

-8

Try this command :

sudo ln -s /sbin/ifconfig /usr/bin/ifconfig

answered Mar 12 '14 at 08:35

nux

38,017
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12

This isn't a solution, its a workaround. – jobin Mar 12 '14 at 09:21

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

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