Set Permanent Environmental Variables 12.04LTS

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Originally Posted by Vaphell

default config adds ~/bin (if it exists) to $PATH automatically either way (~/.profile)

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Hey i didn't know that since which Ubuntu version because i have done this since 8.04?

My understanding is system wide environment variables are actually "supposed" to go in /etc/environment in Ubuntu. User only enviroment variables should go in ~/.pam_environment

see this documentation https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables

It's a long story but some variables get reset if they are in the places others have mentioned, I ran into this specifically with a variable related to getting minecraft to work on a 64 bit machine.

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Originally Posted by jerome1232

My understanding is system wide environment variables are actually "supposed" to go in /etc/environment in Ubuntu. User only enviroment variables should go in ~/.pam_environment

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He said to have tried that and didn't work.

That's what I get for skimming, my bad.

1. Create a file custom.sh in the folder /etc/profiled.d with the required commands .

sudo vi /etc/profile.d/custom.sh

In place of vi you can use gedit / nedit or the like

In your case custom.sh will have the following lines:
export NETKIT_HOME=~/netkit
export PATH=$PATH:$NETKIT_HOME/bin
export MANPATH=:$NETKIT_HOME/man

2.Make the file executable
command : chmod +x custom.sh

3.Now these variables are permanently available. To remove them either eit the file or remove the file itself.

4.I use this approach in RHEL and it works flawlessly

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Originally Posted by madinc

Hey i didn't know that since which Ubuntu version because i have done this since 8.04?

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Not sure since when exactly, but it's outlined in your ~/.profile file by default:

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# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists
if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then
    PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
fi

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As mcduck says, you're best off putting the extra paths in .profile if you want them system wide, while just putting them in .bashrc would suffice if you only need them in bash shells.

EDIT: Also should point out that if you create ~/bin and want it to become part of your path, all you need to do is to logout and log back on, or simply reload your shell:

Code:

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source ~/.bashrc

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by drmrgd

Not sure since when exactly, but it's outlined in your ~/.profile file by default:

EDIT: Also should point out that if you create ~/bin and want it to become part of your path, all you need to do is to logout and log back on, or simply reload your shell:

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Thank's it's always good to know.