How to append values to the PATH environment variable in NodeJS? - node.js

Question

Following the answer suggested in the question -
Is it possible to permanently set environment variables?
I was able to set new environment variables permanently with the command -
spawnSync('setx', ['-m', 'MyDownloads', 'H:\\temp\\downloads'])
But now my goal is to append new values to the PATH environment variable.
Is it possible?

Answer 1

Why don't you just get the environment variable and then append to it?
I.e.
const {spawnSync} = require("child_process");
const current_value = process.env.PATH;
const new_path_value = current_value.concat(";", "/some/new/path");
var result = spawnSync('setx', ['-m', 'PATH', new_path_value])
// STDOUT
var stdOut = result.stdout.toString();
console.log(stdOut)
// STDERR
var stdErr = result.stderr.toString();
if(stdErr === '') {
console.log('Successfully set environment variable')
} else {
console.log(`ERROR: ${stderr}`)
}
Update "/some/new/path" and run this as admin as the link you provided suggests and it should work.

Answer 2

Run your script with the admin permission:
Open cmd or PowerShell with admin
Run node your_script.js
To append PATH variable, you can set value is : %PATH%;your_new_value here (%PATH% get old value)
If you run with electron app, you should require admin permission.
Don't forget setx run on window

Answer 3

I don't have rights to modify my registry, and I also would rather not call an OS command such as setx.
The following adds an additional component to the Windows PATH. I then ran Selenium, which uses the new setting.
// Display current value of PATH
const current_value = process.env.PATH;
console.log("PREV VALUE:")
console.log(current_value)
// Add the additional entry
const addl_entry = String.raw`\my\new\path\component`
process.env["PATH"] = addl_entry + ";" + current_value
// Display the new value
console.log("NEW VALUE:")
console.log(process.env.PATH)