Search paths

In Windows, the standard system PATH typically includes %SystemRoot% and %SystemRoot%\system32. When you install Windows Services for UNIX, it inserts paths to directories that are important for Windows users, such as C:\SFU\common\, at the end of the Windows system PATH.

The format of the Interix PATH variable is different from the Windows PATH. The Interix shells use a colon (:) as a path separator instead of the semicolon (;), which is used in Windows. Because drive letters such as C: and D:, which are used in Windows, are not recognized by Interix, you must use the Interix naming conventions /dev/fs/C and /dev/fs/D.

The value of PATH in Interix is different from the value of PATH in Windows, because it includes additional directories, such as /bin, /usr/contrib/bin and /usr/X11R5/bin, which are important in the UNIX environment.

Within an Interix shell, you can view both the Interix PATH and the Windows PATH. You view the Interix PATH by typing:

echo $PATH

You view the Windows PATH by typing:

path

If you do this, you will see that the two paths are different. Additionally, the Windows system PATH variable that you see in Interix is different from the system PATH that you see from Properties in My Computer.

The Interix PATH_WINDOWS environment variable is used to find Windows commands. The value of PATH_WINDOWS is not automatically added to the Interix PATH. For more information on PATH_WINDOWS, see Starting a Win32 program.

You can create custom startup paths for Interix. For more information, see Customizing startup files.