[Question] quarto --version returns nothing on macOS

[vlmathieu]

Operating system

macOS 15.2, Mac mini M2

Language and version

python --version -> Python 3.12.4 git --version -> git version 2.39.5 quarto --version -> nothing

What you were trying to do

Checking my installation before Monday, as asked in the installation guide
(00-admin/installation-guide.md, "Check" section).
The first two commands answer. The third one does not.

The minimal code that reproduces the problem

$ quarto --version
zsh: command not found: quarto

The COMPLETE error message

zsh: command not found: quarto

What you have already tried

1. Closed and reopened the Terminal, then ran the command again. Same message.
2. Restarted the Mac. Same message.
3. Checked in the Finder: "Quarto" is there in /Applications.
4. Searched "zsh command not found quarto macos"; the answers talk about the
   PATH, but I don't know how to check what mine contains.

Checks

• I have read the error message in full.
• I have searched the repository issues for the same question.
• My code contains no absolute path and no setwd().

[vlmathieu]

Textbook question — everything is there, and point 3 above all: Quarto is installed. So this is not an installation problem, it is a PATH problem — exactly the distinction we cover in the course.

Two commands settle it:

ls -l /usr/local/bin/quarto
echo $PATH

If the first finds the file and /usr/local/bin does not appear in the second: the program exists, the terminal does not know where to look.

If the first finds nothing: the application was dragged into /Applications without the installer package ever being run. Reopen the downloaded `.pkg and go through to the end — that is what installs the command.

Either way, `command not found meant one of those two things and nothing else.