How to remap a command in KDE Konsole

Question

I am a user without sudo-rights on a Ubuntu 12.04 machine I use with KDE. I would like to build a newer version of some program (in this case, vim) somewhere in my home folder.

How can I make the Konsole start the new version of vim (or whatever program) after typing vim, instead of the system one?

Answer 1

You can do this in either of two ways:

• use an explicit pathname when referring to "your" vim, e.g.,

  ./vim

• modify your PATH variable and/or move "your" vim to an existing directory in your PATH before the system's vim. If you do this, the shell provides the full pathname when executing the command, saving you work.

In some distributions, the bash shell is setup to automatically add ~/bin to your PATH if that directory exists. That is the easiest place for you to install your own programs.