Manage shell environment and PATH across login and interactive shells using zsh profile files
domain: zsh.sourceforge.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Understand load order on macOS/zsh: .zshenv (all shells) → .zprofile (login shells) → .zshrc (interactive shells); place environment variables like PATH and EDITOR in .zshenv or .zprofile, not .zshrc.
Export PATH additions in ~/.zprofile: export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" so they are inherited by GUI apps and non-interactive login shells.
Place aliases, functions, prompt configuration, and completion setup in ~/.zshrc — these only apply to interactive sessions.
Use .zshenv for variables that must reach non-interactive scripts (e.g., cron or launchd jobs): export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Reload the current shell's rc without logging out: source ~/.zshrc (reloads aliases/functions but does not re-run .zprofile).
Known gotchas
On macOS, /etc/zprofile runs path_helper to set PATH before ~/.zprofile; prepend entries rather than overwriting PATH entirely to avoid losing system paths.
.zshenv is sourced for every shell invocation including scripts called by launchd or cron; keep it minimal and avoid interactive commands or slow initialisation in it.
Changes to .zprofile take effect only in new login shells; open a new Terminal window or run exec -l zsh to apply them without logging out.
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