How to fix paths to solve Homebrew doctor warnings

Question

Another newbie query. I've been struggling to install matplotlib for a Python project so reading around suggested Homebrew was a solid solution for package management and dependencies.

However when I run the Homebrew diagnostics I receive the following error:

$ brew doctor
Warning: "config" scripts exist outside your system or Homebrew directories.
`./configure` scripts often look for *-config scripts to determine if
software packages are installed, and what additional flags to use when
compiling and linking.

Having additional scripts in your path can confuse software installed via
Homebrew if the config script overrides a system or Homebrew provided
script of the same name. We found the following "config" scripts:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python-config
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2-config
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python2.7-config
Warning: /usr/bin occurs before /usr/local/bin
This means that system-provided programs will be used instead of those
provided by Homebrew. The following tools exist at both paths:

2to3
2to3-2.7
idle
idle2.7
pydoc
pydoc2.7
python
python-config
python2.7
python2.7-config
pythonw
pythonw2.7
smtpd.py
smtpd2.7.py
tclsh
tclsh8.5
wish
wish8.5

Consider amending your PATH so that /usr/local/bin
occurs before /usr/bin in your PATH.

I know this is an incredibly simple query but how do I fix the path?

More importantly, is Homebrew the current package of choice? I've seen so many articles surrounding Fink and MacPorts, easy_install and pip that I can't work out what the best practice is.

Answer 1

Apologies for wasting time. The key question about changing path is already answered in this query: How to modify PATH for Homebrew?