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If you don't already have duplicates in the PATH and you only want to add directories if they are not already there, you can do it easily with the shell alone.

for x in /path/to/add …; do
  case ":$PATH:" in
    *":$x:"*) :;; # already there
    *) PATH="$x:$PATH";;
  esac
done
And here's a shell snippet that removes duplicates from $PATH. It goes through the entries one by one, and copies those that haven't been seen yet.

if [ -n "$PATH" ]; then
  old_PATH=$PATH:; PATH=
  while [ -n "$old_PATH" ]; do
    x=${old_PATH%%:*}       # the first remaining entry
    case $PATH: in
      *:"$x":*) ;;         # already there
      *) PATH=$PATH:$x;;    # not there yet
    esac
    old_PATH=${old_PATH#*:}
  done
  PATH=${PATH#:}
  unset old_PATH x
fi