How do I change my path when executing a command following a terminal ssh to another machine

Question

For the following please consider that I'm new to the Linux file system and have little understanding here.

When I log onto my cluster I do so on a default machine. The admin have setup several python distributions in the root and I've set the one that I want to use in my .bashrc. In my case and for illustration this distribution is:

export PATH="/csoft/epd-7.3.2/bin:$PATH";

I've been asked to execute scripts from another machine that I have to ssh to via the terminal. When I ssh to this machine that file system appears exactly the same (including the .bashrc). However, a different version of python is executed by default. How do I set the path for this ssh machine, those unique name can be determined via hostname?

"the path" meaning: "how do I execute a specific version of python"? — Jeff Schaller, Oct 14 '17 at 21:29
export PATH="/csoft/epd-7.3.2/bin:$PATH"; in the .bashrc. This is the path to the python that I need. The sys admins have several other python distributions that you can choose by setting this path appropriately. — Jibbity jobby, Oct 14 '17 at 21:33
so you need that particular $PATH set on a particular machine? Does hostname or uname -n return a unique value on that "other" machine that will uniquely identify it? — Jeff Schaller, Oct 14 '17 at 21:35
I'll propose a solution; in the meantime, you should edit your question to include these critical details. Thank you! — Jeff Schaller, Oct 14 '17 at 21:38
Thanks a lot. I've made edits. If these don't completely suffice please feel free to edit yourself or leave sugggestions as a comment. — Jibbity jobby, Oct 14 '17 at 21:42

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 14 '17 at 21:41

In your .bash_profile, include this (replacing unique-hostname-here with the output from uname -n on that host):

case $(uname -n) in
  (unique-hostname-here) PATH="/csoft/epd-7.3.2/bin:$PATH"
        ;;
esac

This presumes that the PATH variable has already been populated and exported previously (or subsequently); no need to re-export it every time it's set.

Further reading on shell initialization files:

How to correctly add a path to PATH?

How do I change my path when executing a command following a terminal ssh to another machine

1 Answers1