nano in the PATH but no nano access

Question

I've put nano in the Windows PATH. Nano was initially available globally from the Windows command line but has now disappeared. I am loathe to restart the machine at the moment for a number of reasons. Anyone got any idea how nano could be still showing in the environment variable but be inaccessible from the command line?

Result of typing path and dir on command line:

PATH and DIR

C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3>dir
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is E42F-3D18

 Directory of C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3

05/03/2016  18:09    <DIR>          .
05/03/2016  18:09    <DIR>          ..
14/11/2010  23:42            20,403 COPYING.DOC
14/11/2010  23:42            18,342 COPYING.txt
27/02/2015  01:20           109,597 cyggcc_s-1.dll
27/02/2015  01:20         1,034,269 cygiconv-2.dll
27/02/2015  01:21            42,013 cygintl-8.dll
27/02/2015  01:21         3,330,544 cygwin1.dll
14/11/2010  23:42            39,258 faq.html
14/11/2010  23:42            13,170 nano.1.html
05/03/2016  19:13           359,690 nano.exe
15/11/2010  00:29            76,444 nano.log
15/11/2010  01:02             8,882 nano.rc
14/11/2010  23:42             1,602 README.TXT
              12 File(s)      5,054,214 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  210,170,200,064 bytes free

C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3>path
PATH=C:\Program Files\iis express\PHP\v7.0;C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Heroku\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\cmd;C:\Program Files (x86)\Graphviz 2.28\bin;c:\php;c:\Apache24;c:\Apache24\bin;C:\Program Files\nodejs\;C:\Program Files (x86)\Skype\Phone\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Web Platform Installer\;C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\120\Tools\Binn\;C:\RailsInstaller\Git\cmd;C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby2.1.0\bin;C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby2.0.0\bin;C:\ProgramData\fujitsu\atom\bin;C:\Users\fujitsu\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Program Files (x86)\GtkSharp\2.12\bin;C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Fabric 1.5 & MySQL Utilities 1.5\;C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL\MySQL Fabric 1.5 & MySQL Utilities 1.5\Doctrine extensions for PHP\;C:\Ruby22-x64\bin;C:\RailsInstaller\Git\cmd;C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby2.1.0\bin;C:\RailsInstaller\Ruby2.0.0\bin;C:\ProgramData\fujitsu\atom\bin;C:\Users\fujitsu\AppData\Roaming\npm;C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3\nano.exe

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

1

How can nano be in the PATH but is inaccessible from the command line?

You have a space in your path after the last ;.

Remove the space and it should all work.

In addition, as pointed out in a comment by dxiv the path should only contain directory names, so replace C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3\nano.exe with C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3

Notes:

After setting the correct path you should close any open cmd shells and open new ones to pick up the revised PATH
Type path in a cmd shell to check your path.

I've typed path in a new cmd shell after closing all open ones. The shell shows nano in the path but when I type 'nano' I get:
''nano' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.'
– Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 22:28
There's no space after the semi-colon anymore either... – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 22:30
@PeterDavidCarter Please edit your question and include the full output of running path in a cmd shell and of running dir in the nano directory. – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 22:38
Editing to include requested info – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 23:35
@PeterDavidCarter You have other spaces after ; in your path. You should remove all of them. – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 23:40
I don't. It's just where I was indenting the text since the screenshots I took got cropped during the upload process – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 23:41
I'm not looking at the image. I'm looking at the text in the question. C:\Program Files (x86)\Graphviz 2.28\bin; c:\php; c:\Apache24; c:\Apache24\bin – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 23:43
There is one either side of c:\php; and either side of c:\Apache24; – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 23:44
1

@PeterDavidCarter C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3\nano.exe That should be just C:\Downloads\nano-2.5.3 The PATH contains directories, not filenames. – dxiv Mar 05 '16 at 23:46
Yeah, those were added when I was attempting to add the four spaces in order to format the command line output as code but the editor wasn't playing ball. It often interpreted the four spaces as spaces in the path command output rather my following the Stack Exchange convention. I was/am in the process of editing those out as they do not appear on my own terminal screen. – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 23:46
@dxiv Well spotted. Looks like you cracked it. – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 23:47
@PeterDavidCarter See comment from dxiv. – DavidPostill Mar 05 '16 at 23:47
Ok. Odd nano was working before with nano.exe in but I'll make the change :). – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 23:48
Yeah. Works now. – Peter David Carter Mar 05 '16 at 23:49

nano in the PATH but no nano access

1 Answers1

How can nano be in the PATH but is inaccessible from the command line?

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