Just to add to what Ynot said, you can check your current PATH variable by typing `echo $PATH' (without the quotes) at a shell prompt, and you can create your own PATH by adding something like
Code:
export PATH='/bin:/usr/local/bin:$HOME/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin'
to your ~/.bashrc if you use bash. You could also add it to ~/.bash_profile or ~/.profile (they function identically) if you use a login shell. Or just add it to ~/.bashrc and then source ~/.bashrc in ~/.bash_profile like so:
Code:
# contents of ~/.bash_profile
. $HOME/.bashrc
If you don't use bash, the syntax of exporting the PATH variable might be slightly different and the file names will be different.