Where is the default terminal $PATH located on Mac?

Question

I have been looking throughout the system but I cannot find it. When I do echo $PATH I get the stuff I added, plus the default path. I do not have a .profile, and I do have a .b

Answer 1

If you start at /etc/profile, it should look something like this:

if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
    eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
fi

It's testing to see if the file exists and if so, executes it. If you execute it by hand, you'll get something like this:

PATH="/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin"; export PATH;

I believe that's what you're looking for. So it comes from /etc/profile, which in turn calls an executable that sets the path.