The value of the variable `PATH` is a long string that is made of directories separated by a colon `:` on Linux and macOS, and by a semicolon `;` on Windows.

For example, the `PATH` environment variable could look like this:

//// tab | Linux, macOS

```plaintext
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
```

carriage returns (U+000D), and newlines (U+000A),
is ignored except as it separates tokens
that would otherwise combine into a single token. Also, a newline or end of file
may trigger the insertion of a <a href="#Semicolons">semicolon</a>.
While breaking the input into tokens,
the next token is the longest sequence of characters that form a
valid token.
</p>

<h3 id="Semicolons">Semicolons</h3>

<p>