$PATH

[Ronnie]

hello, i was wondering if someone could clarify $PATH to me.   I am a
little unclear as to how i set the path permanently,  ive seen it mention
that you can modify .login and .profile.  Please correct me if im wrong,
.login is to set the path for users and .profile is to set the path for
su??  I checked out my path and i noticed that they are both the same for
su and users,  i also noticed that /usr/local/bin was in the path but i
just read in the tucows tutorial that su shouldnt have /usr/local/bin in
the path.

please help, id like to figure out how to configure the path properly

thanks,
Ronnie