PDA

View Full Version : HOWTO: Environment Variables



gecko
October 22nd, 2004, 05:24 AM
This thread is now closed. The information can be found on the wiki here

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnvironmentVariables




Environment Variables

Environment variables for a specific command
To set a variable for just a one off you can specify the variable on the command line itself as follows...

NAME=VALUE COMMAND PARAMETERS

Example
http_proxy=http://localhost:8080/ apt-get update

NB: You can have multiple name=value pairs seperated by spaces.

Environment Variables for the shell/command line
To permanently add an environment variable you add the following lines to the relevant rc file. Th rc file is read whenever a terminal is opened from the ubuntu desktop. For a program that runs as a specific user you need to add them to the /home/username/.bashrc file. For programs that require sudo access you add these lines to the /root/.bashrc file.

NAME=VALUE
export NAME

Example

http_proxy=http://localhost:8080
export http_proxy

Environment variables for the gnome desktop
To permanently add variables for the Gnome desktop, you add lines to the ??? file. Please add this information.

Contribute!
If you find more information on environment variables then please add them as a reply to this post. Corrections should be sent to the author of his or her post.

Gecko

adamw523
October 22nd, 2004, 05:47 AM
Environment variables for gnome desktop:

This worked for me:

edit file: /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
add your path to the "DefaultPath" line

example of adding Java /bin to path:

# Default path to set. The profile scripts will likely override this
DefaultPath=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/usr/local/java/bin

Neo40
October 24th, 2004, 02:08 PM
Environment variables for gnome desktop:

This worked for me:

edit file: /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
add your path to the "DefaultPath" line

example of adding Java /bin to path:

# Default path to set. The profile scripts will likely override this
DefaultPath=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games:/usr/local/java/bin



Well, it's not working for me. My java is in /usr/local/j2re1.4.2_05/bin. So, I just added this in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf as you said but when I log back and I type "which java" I see nothing! I also tried to add this line in my ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/j2re1.4.2_05/bin

But it's still loosing it when I reboot. What I'm doing wrong??

Thanks.

gecko
October 25th, 2004, 12:55 AM
Try your ~/.bashrc file.

Please turn on private messaging so I can privmsg replies to your questions.

Gecko

offby1
December 26th, 2004, 03:35 PM
More effective (Apparently) is adding them to /etc/environment.

exporting is not required there.

ekricyote
August 18th, 2007, 07:53 AM
Is this a catch all situation for most Linux distributions? I tried editing a PATH variable in /etc/profile and wound up unable to ls or sudo (silly me, I forgot the /bin directory, let alone /sbin).

In these scripts, would just declaring the variable work or do I have to use export keyword?

e.g is it this

export PATH=" ... "

or this

PATH = " ... "

I've seen some scripts do this as well in /etc/profile. Any comments on it?

PATH=" ... "
export PATH

DarkBattM14
September 13th, 2012, 07:41 AM
Environment Variables

Environment variables for a specific command
To set a variable for just a one off you can specify the variable on the command line itself as follows...

NAME=VALUE COMMAND PARAMETERS

Example
http_proxy=http://localhost:8080/ apt-get update

NB: You can have multiple name=value pairs seperated by spaces.

Environment Variables for the shell/command line
To permanently add an environment variable you add the following lines to the relevant rc file. Th rc file is read whenever a terminal is opened from the ubuntu desktop. For a program that runs as a specific user you need to add them to the /home/username/.bashrc file. For programs that require sudo access you add these lines to the /root/.bashrc file.

NAME=VALUE
export NAME

Example

http_proxy=http://localhost:8080
export http_proxy

Environment variables for the gnome desktop
To permanently add variables for the Gnome desktop, you add lines to the ??? file. Please add this information.

Contribute!
If you find more information on environment variables then please add them as a reply to this post. Corrections should be sent to the author of his or her post.

Gecko


Ohhh!!! Thanks!! this help me a lot!!! :popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

sisco311
September 13th, 2012, 02:23 PM
http://ompldr.org/tYnpyNw (http://ompldr.org/vYnpyNw)

Thread closed.