Set Path in *nix

I need to be able to set the command path from PHP on any *nix system, any
shell. I know there are different formats depending on the shell; when I do
a getenv(), it shows the colon-delimited format, but when I try to change
it with putenv(), it's ignored, no matter what format I use, or even if I
give it just a single path.

--
Alan Little
Phorm PHP Form Processor
http://www.phorm.com/

Alan Little wrote:
> I need to be able to set the command path from PHP on any *nix system, any
> shell. I know there are different formats depending on the shell; when I do
> a getenv(), it shows the colon-delimited format, but when I try to change
> it with putenv(), it's ignored, no matter what format I use, or even if I
> give it just a single path.

Can you give a code sample of exactly what you're doing? Normally
something like this should work:

putenv('PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/foobar');
# ... run commands requiring PATH change

As far as I know, this shouldn't be shell-dependent.

(Remember that changes to the environment will only be in effect for the
process you change it in and any child processes you spawn afterwards.
So for instance running a PHP script from a shell will not change the
environment in the shell that you ran it from.)

-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)