Set Permanent Environmental Variables 12.04LTS

[mysteriouskiwi]

Hi,

Having a little trouble finding good documentation on adding in environmental variables permanently in Ubuntu 12.04LTS.

I've read the official documentation, search on these forums on others and viewed all relevant posts from other people on editing the: ~/.bashrs , ~/.profile , /etc/environment.

I've also tried adding a ~/.pum_environment with the supposed correct formating, which caused a crash of my user, fixing it by going into the text login (CTRL+ATL+F1) and loading the default PATH variables again (. /etc/environment) and deleting the file.

I'm trying to add these, as currently I am doing it manually in the Terminal at the beginning of each session.

export NETKIT_HOME=~/netkit
export PATH=$PATH:$NETKIT_HOME/bin
export MANPATH=:$NETKIT_HOME/man

I'm currently using netkit and really would like to add these to my PATH to remove me doing to manually.

I'm assuming I need to add it to ~/.profile , which i have tried logged-in, out, to reload it and nothing happened (creating a backup first of course, in case it failed).

I would like really simple instructions to learn it first. Please if you respond, could include why things are placed there so I actually learn something instead of just doing it? Hehe

The original documentation is here: http://wiki.netkit.org/netkit-labs/netkit_introduction/netkit-introduction.pdf (page 16, "Setting up Netkit").

Thanks

[offgridguy]

What are environmental variables anyway ??

[madinc]

look for ~/ .bashrc file and add what you want at the end.

[madinc]

look for ~/ .bashrc file and add what you want at the end.

for example to add my bin to the path "/home/madinc/bin" i add this code at the end of the bashrc file like this:

export PATH
PATH="/home/madinc/bin:$PATH"

[mysteriouskiwi]

So, for example, would the '.bashrc' file look like this?:

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
   #my lines
   export NETKIT_HOME
   NETKIT_HOME="~/netkit:$NETKIT_HOME"
   export PATH
   PATH="$NETKIT_HOME/bin:$PATH"
   export MANPATH
   MANPATH="$NETKIT_HOME/man:$MANPATH"
fi

Would that work? Off to bed as it's 4:30am, but I'll check back on this later!

Thanks for the help, by the way!

[mysteriouskiwi]

What are environmental variables anyway ??

I believe something in which are defined system or session wide to provide processes with common links to areas of the operating system, by user or developer definition.

For example, to set the PATH for new Java installations for the JDK so that it can access its root files. Like an operating shell for processess, an aid to defined directories for the bash/shell/command area to check if the user hasn't predefined their own input, in which it checks before throwing an error or returning the correct desired result.

Say, you're programming in C and have a directory setup for that. You would assign a new PATH to that directory, to tell the OS to check that directory when you input say "test.c", instead of having to type "./test.c" do show the process what directory that file is in to run.

Eg: say your directory for working with said 'test.c' was "~/c_stuff/", ' PATH="$PATH":~/c_stuff ' would add the directory to the predefined directories in which the execute command would search in for the desired file name when you type in Bash "test.c". If the path is added correctly the program will run as it has found the path with the file named 'test.c' and run it. Instead of the person typing ./test.c to define the location and execute the file.

Although with Netkit, the PATH(s) have to be set as it needs to use the commands without defining the directory each time. It would be like having to type ' . /etc/environment ' every time you wanted to use Terminal, so you have access to; sudo, rm, cp, etc....

Sorry if that is slightly over complicated it or is just poorly explained.

[madinc]

Would that work? Off to bed as it's 4:30am, but I'll check back on this later!

Thanks for the help, by the way!

Well it works for me but most people seem to put it in ~/.bash_profile i really don't know the difference i just put it in the ~/.bashrc at the end of it after "fi" and not like you have there i hope it works for you too if it does please let me know you can also check this link http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/prepostpath.htm
and this http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/basic/path.shtml
and my favourite https://www.ccs.uky.edu/docs/cluster/env.html
sometimes it's a matter of trial & error please let me know what worked for you.

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
fi
export DEBFULLNAME="Madinc"
export DEBEMAIL="madinc29@gmail.com"
export PATH
PATH="/home/madinc/bin:$PATH"

[madinc]

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion ] && ! shopt -oq posix; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
fi
export DEBFULLNAME="Madinc"
export DEBEMAIL="madinc29@gmail.com"
export PATH
PATH="/home/madinc/bin:$PATH"

To take efect type this in the terminal

~/.bash_profile

doing that you don't need to logout.

[mcduck]

put it ~/.bashrc if you want it to only affect terminal sessions, or in ~/.profile if you want the variables to be set any time you are logged in, including the graphical environment.

(~/.bashrc is sourced for each Bash session, while ~/.profile is sourced when you log in, for all shells and graphical environments)

[Vaphell]

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