The shell uses environment variables to store information, such as the name of the current user, the name of the host computer, and the default paths to any commands.
macOS (OS X): Change your PATH environment variable You can add path to any one of the following method: $HOME/. bash_profile file using export syntax. /etc/paths.
On Mac or LinuxLaunch Terminal or a shell. Enter printenv. A list of all the environment variables that are set is displayed in the Terminal or shell window.
There are several places where you can set environment variables.
~/.profile
: use this for variables you want to set in all programs launched from the terminal (note that, unlike on Linux, all shells opened in Terminal.app are login shells).~/.bashrc
: this is invoked for shells which are not login shells. Use this for aliases and other things which need to be redefined in subshells, not for environment variables that are inherited./etc/profile
: this is loaded before ~/.profile, but is otherwise equivalent. Use it when you want the variable to apply to terminal programs launched by all users on the machine (assuming they use bash).~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
: this is read by loginwindow on login. It applies to all applications, including GUI ones, except those launched by Spotlight in 10.5 (not 10.6). It requires you to logout and login again for changes to take effect. This file is no longer supported as of OS X 10.8.launchd
instance: this applies to all programs launched by the user, GUI and CLI. You can apply changes at any time by using the setenv
command in launchctl
. In theory, you should be able to put setenv
commands in ~/.launchd.conf
, and launchd
would read them automatically when the user logs in, but in practice support for this file was never implemented. Instead, you can use another mechanism to execute a script at login, and have that script call launchctl
to set up the launchd
environment./etc/launchd.conf
: this is read by launchd when the system starts up and when a user logs in. They affect every single process on the system, because launchd is the root process. To apply changes to the running root launchd you can pipe the commands into sudo launchctl
.The fundamental things to understand are:
launchctl
; the updated variables are then inherited by all new processes it forks from then on.Example of setting an environment variable with launchd:
echo setenv REPLACE_WITH_VAR REPLACE_WITH_VALUE | launchctl
Now, launch your GUI app that uses the variable, and voila!
To work around the fact that ~/.launchd.conf
does not work, you can put the following script in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.launchd.conf.plist
:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>local.launchd.conf</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>sh</string>
<string>-c</string>
<string>launchctl < ~/.launchd.conf</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
Then you can put setenv REPLACE_WITH_VAR REPLACE_WITH_VALUE
inside ~/.launchd.conf
, and it will be executed at each login.
Note that, when piping a command list into launchctl in this fashion, you will not be able to set environment variables with values containing spaces. If you need to do so, you can call launchctl as follows: launchctl setenv MYVARIABLE "QUOTE THE STRING"
.
Also, note that other programs that run at login may execute before the launchagent, and thus may not see the environment variables it sets.
There's no need for duplication. You can set environment variables used by launchd (and child processes, i.e. anything you start from Spotlight) using launchctl setenv
.
For example, if you want to mirror your current path in launchd after setting it up in .bashrc
or wherever:
PATH=whatever:you:want
launchctl setenv PATH $PATH
Environment variables are not automatically updated in running applications. You will need to relaunch applications to get the updated environment variables (although you can just set variables in your shell, e.g. PATH=whatever:you:want
; there's no need to relaunch the terminal).
I think what the OP is looking for is a simple, windows-like solution.
here ya go:
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14617/rcenvironment
You can read up on linux, which is pretty close to what Mac OS X is. Or you can read up on BSD Unix, which is a little closer. For the most part, the differences between Linux and BSD don't amount to much.
/etc/profile
are system environment variables.
~/.profile
are user-specific environment variables.
"where should I set my JAVA_HOME variable?"
/etc/profile
? Generally, I prefer not to mess with system-wide settings even though I'm the only user. I prefer to edit my local settings.
For GUI apps, you'll have to create and edit ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
. More details here. You will need to log out for these to take effect. I'm not sure if they also affect applications launched from Terminal, but I assume they would.
For apps launched from Terminal, you can also edit the ~/.profile file.
Synchronize OS X environment variables for command line and GUI applications from a single source with osx-env-sync.
I also posted an answer to a related question here.
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