brew doctor complains about paths in .bashrc

[mxa]

==> /usr/bin occurs before /usr/local/bin
This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those
provided by Homebrew. This is an issue if you eg. brew installed Python.

Consider editing your .bashrc to put:
/usr/local/bin
ahead of /usr/bin in your $PATH.

that's on a fresh homebrew installation. why doesn't the installer take care of that?

now my .bashrc file looks like this:
PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin
PATH=${PATH}:~/bin
but the error in brew doctor still persists.

[Sharpie]

We don't alter the user's PATH. Ever.

[jacknagel]

The Homebrew installer (and more generally, Homebrew itself) will not touch files outside of its installation. It is up to you to make the necessary adjustments to your configuration files.

In this case, brew doctor will continue to warn you because /usr/local/bin is not first in your PATH. The warning will cease if you adjust it to something like PATH=/usr/local/bin:${PATH}.

[mxa]

now my .bashrc reads:
PATH=/usr/local/bin
and i'm still getting the error.

[mistydemeo]

That PATH statement includes only /usr/local/bin; it would be good to instead add export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH

[mxa]

ok, thanks. both .bashrc and .bash_profile now read
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:~/bin
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH

i'm getting errors like
-bash: chown: command not found
seems i messed up my system now. what do i have to change in .bashrc and .bash_profile to fix this?

[mistydemeo]

Sorry, should have been clearer.

Remove the first PATH= line. The reason I have $PATH last in the line I gave you is because it lets you keep all of the default system paths - just after the other paths you want to put in front. As long as you don't have another definition of PATH coming first in your .bash_profile, then $PATH in that line will be the default system path. If you want ~/bin in addition to the other paths, use just this one line:

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:~/bin:$PATH

Make sure you don't have another PATH= or export PATH= line before it.

(The reason it couldn't find chown is because that's in /usr/sbin, one of the lines you were missing in your PATH definitions. The default PATH contains /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin)

[mxa]

ah ok thanks for explaining this.
.bash_profile now reads:
[[ -s ~/.bashrc ]] && source /.bashrc
and .bashrc like this:
export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:$PATH

echo $PATH gives me
/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/Users/max/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin

chown and friends are now working again.

[mgifford]

The error can really be cleaned up so that it is more user friendly....

[stewacide]

mxa's solution worked great. The doctor's message should be clearer that .bashrc isn't necessarily the problem (it even throws up this error in zsh for me)

[thie1210]

Is it a good idea to move /usr/local/bin up in /etc/paths? Thanks

[mistydemeo]

No, I'd recommend doing it in your bashrc (or equivalent).

[thie1210]

And if it's Apache running Django/Python?

[mistydemeo]

@thie1210 You should just be able to set it in the .profile of the user account Apache is running as.