Path question

[Chris Green]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2020 at 02:40:52PM +1000, Phil wrote:
> This seemingly simple operation has me scratching my head.
> 
> I have a python script that I want to add to the system menu. I cannot run
> "python3 /path_to_the_script/thescript" outside of it's directory because
> "thescript" needs resources that are also in that directory. Of course,
> "thescript" will run from it's own directory
> (/home/phil/Downloads/Ink_spill).
> 
> In an attempt to solves this problem I've added the directory to the path
> but there's something odd going on here, as follows:
> 
> phil at phil-ThinkPad-T420:~$ cat $PATH
> cat: '/home/phil/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/home/phil/Downloads/Ink_spill': 
> 
> No such file or directory
> 
> phil at phil-ThinkPad-T420:~$ cd /home/phil/Downloads/Ink_spill
> 
> pwd
> 
> phil at phil-ThinkPad-T420:~/Downloads/Ink_spill
> 
> cat $PATH indicates the directory doesn't exist but it does. What's going
> on?
> 
The 'cat' command simply tries to open the whole of the string
contained in $PATH as if it was a file.  Since there is no file
'/home/phil/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin:/home/phil/Downloads/Ink_spill'
you get the error message.

-- 
Chris Green