adding additional directories to search for exe / binaries, similar to how a shell uses the PATH env var.

[ipatch]

hello 👋,

i'm using rofi as a application launcher primarily to spawn gui based applications for my desktop environment. my current setup is a arch linux install, with X11, lightdm, and i3. i came across the below thread in these discussions, tried a couple of things mentioned but can not get additional path entries to work rofi.

#1281 (reply in thread)

what i have tried so far, it adding a shell script in the below dir /etc/profile.d

ipatch/dotfiles@358dd7b

i then run the command suggested in the linked discussion, and i see,

cat /proc/$(pidof i3)/environ | tr '\0' '\n' | grep '^PATH'

and get the below output

PATH=/home/capin/hombrew/sbin:/home/capin/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/opt/android-sdk/tools:/opt/android-sdk/tools/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/opt/rocm/bin:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin

basically i have some gui applicaitons installed ~/homebrew/bin that i'd like to run and take precedence of a system level package via pacman that is installed in /usr/bin

i have logged out and logged back in of lightdm, but have not fully restarted the computer yet, but if that is required i will.

is there something i'm still missing?

[DaveDavenport]

PATH=/home/capin/hombrew/sbin:/home/capin/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/opt/android-sdk/tools:/opt/android-sdk/tools/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl:/opt/rocm/bin:/var/lib/snapd/snap/bin

why is it sbin and hombrew in PATH=/home/capin/hombrew/sbin when you want it in ~/homebrew/bin
sorry I was trown off and missed the next entry

this should work.

[DaveDavenport]

run

G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=Modes.Run rofi -show run -no-config

to see what directories it tries to load.

[ipatch]

thank you for the helpful debug cmd. 🙏 it sure does indeed so the binary i was looking for. just must've over looked it 🧓.

the output from the debug command you gave me was the below,

(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.159: Checking path /opt/code/git/local/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.160: Checking path /home/capin/.rvm/gems/default/wrappers for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.161: Checking path /home/capin/.deno/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.161: Checking path /home/capin/.cargo/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.162: Checking path /home/capin/go/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.163: Checking path /home/capin/.bun/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.163: Checking path /home/capin/.rvm/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.164: Checking path /home/capin/.local/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.168: Checking path /home/capin/homebrew/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.219: Checking path /home/capin/homebrew/sbin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.221: Checking path /usr/local/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.221: Checking path /usr/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.236: Checking path /bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.251: Checking path /usr/local/sbin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.252: Checking path /opt/android-sdk/tools for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.252: Checking path /opt/android-sdk/tools/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.253: Checking path /usr/lib/jvm/default/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.253: Checking path /usr/bin/site_perl for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.254: Checking path /usr/bin/vendor_perl for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.254: Checking path /usr/bin/core_perl for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.254: Checking path /opt/rocm/bin for executable.
(process:3076773): Modes.Run-DEBUG: 15:44:18.255: Checking path /var/lib/snapd/snap/bin for executable.

which the same number of path entries for my SHELL ie. fish. does rofi some how interpret the PATH entries from shell? or am i missing something?

and i should have mentioned i launch rofi with the below key binding using i3.

https://github.com/ipatch/dotfiles/blob/b2a8fccffea76e8df6783449338572a49e60bed6/config/i3/config#L76

[DaveDavenport]

rofi inherits the environment from the program that launches it.

[mostafatouny]

For the record, you can set the directories rofi searches for executables in by

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/home/touny/.local/bin rofi -modi run -show run

Nothing fancy; We are just launching a command with a custom environment variable. You can set keybindings and desktop entries using it.