Setting environment variables on OS X

Question

What is the proper way to modify environment variables like PATH in OS X?

I\'ve looked on Google a little bit and found three different files to edit:

Answer 1

1. Do:

   vim ~/.bash_profile
   

   The file may not exist (if not, you can just create it).

2. Type in this and save the file:

   export PATH=$PATH:YOUR_PATH_HERE
   

3. Run

   source ~/.bash_profile