# How do I add \[1.5.3\] to VS code in Ubuntu?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-add-1-5-3-to-vs-code-in-ubuntu/53127>\
**Category:** General Usage\
**Tags:** question, linux, vscode\
**Created:** [January 10, 2021, 11:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-add-1-5-3-to-vs-code-in-ubuntu/53127 "2021-01-10T23:03:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![affans](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/affans/32/11911_2.png) [@affans](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/affans)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2021, 7:56pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/how-do-i-add-1-5-3-to-vs-code-in-ubuntu/53127/13 "2021-01-11T19:56:23Z")

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As I suspected. When Julia is asking for a `executable path` … don’t put an `export` statement there. That’s obviously not a path. A path in Linux is in the form `/home/user/folder1/folder2/...`. And `export` is a linux command, nothing to do with VScode or Julia.

In Linux when you type in `julia` or any other command/executable, Linux needs to know where this executable exists on the file directory. It traverses through a variable called `$PATH` which contains a list of common directories that include binaries/executables. The default folders it searches are often `/usr/local/bin`, `/usr/bin`. In fact you can see all the folder it searches by running

```julia
affan@XPS13:/mnt/c/Users/affan$ echo $PATH
/home/affan/anaconda3/bin:/home/affan/anaconda3/condabin:/home/affan/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin:/home/affan/.rbenv/shims:/home/affan/.rbenv/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/mnt/c/WINDOWS/system32:/mnt/c/WINDOWS:/mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/Wbem:/mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0:/mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/OpenSSH:/mnt/c/Program Files (x86)/WinSCP:/mnt/c/Program Files/dotnet:/mnt/c/Users/affan/AppData/Local/Microsoft/WindowsApps:/mnt/c/Users/affan/AppData/Local/Programs/MiKTeX 2.9/miktex/bin/x64:/mnt/c/Users/affan/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin:/mnt/c/Users/affan/perl/perl/bin:/mnt/c/Users/affan/AppData/Local/Julia-1.3.0/bin:/snap/bin

```

So when you type in `julia` no matter where you are in the file system, Linux needs to know where the binary actually is. We accomplish this by using the command `export`, which essentially defines a variable in bash. So in your terminal (assuming you have bash), you can run

```julia
 export PATH="/home/affan/path/to/julia/bin:$PATH"

```

Note the `$PATH` at the end, which essentially takes the old `$PATH` and appends your julia folder on top. If you just run `export PATH="/home/affan/path/to/julia/bin"` without the `$PATH` append, you are going to severely break your system. If you do this successfully, you should be able to just type in `julia` in your terminal and it should just launch (and infact sets the `pwd` to that directory, which is handy).

From a VSCode point of view, now you don’t really need to do anything. The VScode extension automatically uses `$PATH` to find the julia binary, so you can leave it blank. Ofcourse, if you don’t do the above and do not modify your `$PATH` variable, then you’ll need to explicitly tell the vscode extension where julia is. I would highly recommend just setting the path once and for all.

We are not done yet. By typing in `export PATH="/home/affan/path/to/julia/bin:$PATH"` in your terminal, you are only changing the variable for that particular instance and will lose the modified variable the next time you login to your terminal/restart your computer. So we need a way to automatically run this command whenever you login/start your computer. Enter the file `.bashrc` in your home directory which is a special file that is run automatically everytime you open terminal/bash. You can edit this file and copy/paste the command `export PATH="/home/affan/path/to/julia/bin:$PATH"` so that you don’t have to keep doing it anymore.

If you are using zsh or some other shell, you have to put the export statement in the correct start-up file, instead of `.bashrc`. However, I don’t think you need to worry about this.

Other ways to accomplish similar things is not modifying your `$PATH` but creating a symlink in `/usr/local/bin` (which is already in `$PATH` by default). As far as I am aware, this is the canonical location for user downloaded binaries, but this might be a little too advanced for now. Just stick with setting the path correctly.

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