Arch Linux

femc

Member

Registered: 2007-03-31

Posts: 10

Why I need to "source /etc/profile" after pacman'ing?

Hi! Sorry for lame topic, that was best I was able to coin.

When I pacman something, say, KOffice, and then try running 'kword' from xfrun4 ("Run command"-dialog) it does not find it. But I can run kword from a terminal after "source /etc/profile".

Any more convenient solution than reboot? I'd like to be able to run it from all terminals I do have currently open + xfrun4 straight after the install. I do usually have 5-7 terminals open and cba to source every one of them.

But after pacman'ing openssh (I think so) I was able to use "scp" without sourcing..

Thanks.

hacosta

Member

From: Mexico

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 423

Re: Why I need to "source /etc/profile" after pacman'ing?

so your PATH gets updated, basically every time you install something in /opt/blah you'll have to do it
scp resides in /usr/bin, so the PATH doesn't need to be updated..
btw the policy of arch is that large packages go in opt so you just have to do this when you install things like
......
e17/  gnome/  java/  kde/  kde4/  mozilla/  openoffice/  qt/  qt4/  songbird/  virtualbox/  zope-3/
.....

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: Why I need to "source /etc/profile" after pacman'ing?

You don't need to reboot, you can just log out and relogin.  Also, you only need to do that the first time you install something in /opt/blah.