I changed my “HOME” variable and now cannot find “~/.bash_profile” to change it back

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I was messing around with environment variables on my Mac, trying to learn how to use them and I used the command nano ~/.bash_profile where I then added the line HOME=/Users/MyCompName/Desktop to update my home variable.

This change worked and can be seen when I use printenv to view all environment variables but when I went to change HOME back I couldn't seem to find ~/.bash_profile anymore. Where did it go?

bash mac environment-variables

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asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

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up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I was messing around with environment variables on my Mac, trying to learn how to use them and I used the command nano ~/.bash_profile where I then added the line HOME=/Users/MyCompName/Desktop to update my home variable.

This change worked and can be seen when I use printenv to view all environment variables but when I went to change HOME back I couldn't seem to find ~/.bash_profile anymore. Where did it go?

bash mac environment-variables

share|improve this question

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

add a comment | 

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

up vote
1
down vote

favorite

I was messing around with environment variables on my Mac, trying to learn how to use them and I used the command nano ~/.bash_profile where I then added the line HOME=/Users/MyCompName/Desktop to update my home variable.

This change worked and can be seen when I use printenv to view all environment variables but when I went to change HOME back I couldn't seem to find ~/.bash_profile anymore. Where did it go?

bash mac environment-variables

share|improve this question

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

I was messing around with environment variables on my Mac, trying to learn how to use them and I used the command nano ~/.bash_profile where I then added the line HOME=/Users/MyCompName/Desktop to update my home variable.

This change worked and can be seen when I use printenv to view all environment variables but when I went to change HOME back I couldn't seem to find ~/.bash_profile anymore. Where did it go?

bash mac environment-variables

bash mac environment-variables

share|improve this question

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

share|improve this question

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

share|improve this question

share|improve this question

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

asked 24 mins ago

Matt

13518

13518

add a comment | 

add a comment | 

1 Answer
1

active

oldest

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up vote
2
down vote



accepted

It's in the same place.

Before the change ~ expands to something like /Users/YourUserName, the shell finds your .bash_profile there. After the file gets sourced ~ expands to another path so ~/.bash_profile no longer points to the relevant file.

To revert, you need to specify the full path to the file. Try

nano /Users/YourUserName/.bash_profile

Modifying your HOME variable without changing your actual home directory is not the best idea. Changing any user's home directory is an administrative task, usually regular users cannot do this.

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
  – Matt
  6 mins ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
  – Kamil Maciorowski
  1 min ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

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1 Answer
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1 Answer
1

active

oldest

votes

active

oldest

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active

oldest

votes

up vote
2
down vote



accepted

It's in the same place.

Before the change ~ expands to something like /Users/YourUserName, the shell finds your .bash_profile there. After the file gets sourced ~ expands to another path so ~/.bash_profile no longer points to the relevant file.

To revert, you need to specify the full path to the file. Try

nano /Users/YourUserName/.bash_profile

Modifying your HOME variable without changing your actual home directory is not the best idea. Changing any user's home directory is an administrative task, usually regular users cannot do this.

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
  – Matt
  6 mins ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
  – Kamil Maciorowski
  1 min ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote



accepted

It's in the same place.

Before the change ~ expands to something like /Users/YourUserName, the shell finds your .bash_profile there. After the file gets sourced ~ expands to another path so ~/.bash_profile no longer points to the relevant file.

To revert, you need to specify the full path to the file. Try

nano /Users/YourUserName/.bash_profile

Modifying your HOME variable without changing your actual home directory is not the best idea. Changing any user's home directory is an administrative task, usually regular users cannot do this.

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
  – Matt
  6 mins ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
  – Kamil Maciorowski
  1 min ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

up vote
2
down vote



accepted

up vote
2
down vote



accepted

It's in the same place.

Before the change ~ expands to something like /Users/YourUserName, the shell finds your .bash_profile there. After the file gets sourced ~ expands to another path so ~/.bash_profile no longer points to the relevant file.

To revert, you need to specify the full path to the file. Try

nano /Users/YourUserName/.bash_profile

Modifying your HOME variable without changing your actual home directory is not the best idea. Changing any user's home directory is an administrative task, usually regular users cannot do this.

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

It's in the same place.

Before the change ~ expands to something like /Users/YourUserName, the shell finds your .bash_profile there. After the file gets sourced ~ expands to another path so ~/.bash_profile no longer points to the relevant file.

To revert, you need to specify the full path to the file. Try

nano /Users/YourUserName/.bash_profile

Modifying your HOME variable without changing your actual home directory is not the best idea. Changing any user's home directory is an administrative task, usually regular users cannot do this.

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

share|improve this answer

share|improve this answer

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

answered 12 mins ago

Kamil Maciorowski

21.1k154870

21.1k154870

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
  – Matt
  6 mins ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
  – Kamil Maciorowski
  1 min ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
  – Matt
  6 mins ago
  
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  @Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
  – Kamil Maciorowski
  1 min ago
  
  

  
  
  
  

Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
– Matt
6 mins ago

Awesome I was able to find it again thanks! Would you mind elaborating on what you mean by "after the file gets sourced"? I'm unfamiliar with what it means for a file to get sourced
– Matt
6 mins ago

@Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
– Kamil Maciorowski
1 min ago

@Matt .bash_profile has a form of a Bash script. You can run a script or source it. Running means creating a subshell and executing the script line by line there. Sourcing means executing the script in the current shell. Some tasks that are meant to affect the current shell cannot be executed in a subshell; changing a variable for the current shell is one of them. That's why some files are sourced, not executed in a subshell. To manually source a file use . file (. is specified by POSIX) or source file (source is a non-POSIX extension understood by few shells).
– Kamil Maciorowski
1 min ago

add a comment | 

 

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