How do I set $PATH such that `ssh user@host command` works?

Question

I can\'t seem to set a new $PATH such that it is used when executing commands via ssh user@host command. I have tried adding export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/new_

Answer 1

Do you have an ~/.bash_login or ~/.bash_profile?

Bash in interactive mode checks for these files, and uses the first existing one, in this order:

1. ~/.bash_profile
2. ~/.bash_login
3. ~/.profile

So if you have an ~/.bash_profile, then whatever changes you do to ~/.profile will be left unseen.

Bash in non-interactive mode sometimes reads the file ~/.bashrc (which is also often source'd from the interactive scripts.) By "sometimes" I mean that it is distribution-dependent: quite oddly, there is a compile-time option for enabling this. Debian enables the ~/.bashrc reading, while e.g. Arch does not.

ssh seems to be using the non-interactive mode, so ~/.bashrc should be enough. When having problems like this, I usually add a few echo's to see what files are being run.