Ubuntu – How to set PATH variables for all users on a server

environment-variableslatexmanpagesoftware installation

I just finished installing LaTeX for my company's Ubuntu server that we all SSH into to use. At the end of the install it says this:

Add /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf/doc/man to MANPATH, if not dynamically determined.

Add /usr/local/texlive/2010/texmf/doc/info to INFOPATH.

Most importantly, add /usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/x86_64-linux to your PATH for current and future sessions.

How do I do this so that these variables are set for all users on the system? (And yes, I have sudo permissions).

Best Answer

You add those to /etc/environment.

It likely already has a line for PATH, so you just append :/usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/x86_64-linux to the end of that. Then add two new lines for MANPATH and INFOPATH.

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

After editing /etc/environment, log out and back in, and check that e.g. echo "$MANPATH" outputs the value you added.

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Ubuntu – How to set JAVA_HOME for all users for “elasticsearch” program

The problem turned out to be the SysV script /etc/init.d/elasticsearch itself.

In the script the PID_DIR variable is set as :

PID_DIR=/var/run/elasticsearch

but there is no such directory exists and there is command to create it in the script too.

The NAME and PID_FILE are set as:

NAME=elasticsearch
PID_FILE="$PID_DIR/$NAME.pid"

So when the PID_FILE is trying to create a file "$PID_DIR/$NAME.pid" (/var/run/elasticsearch/elasticseach.pid) in $PID_DIR (/var/run/elasticsearch/), it is getting:

touch: cannot touch ‘/var/run/elasticsearch/elasticsearch.pid’: No such file or directory

error as the directory /var/run/elasticsearch does not exists already.

About the JAVA_HOME variable, the script /etc/init.d/elasticsearch is not using the system's variable rather using/creating its own version of the variable that is well defined in the script.

According to the script, if JAVA_HOME is not set in /etc/default/elasticsearch it will try to set it manually by searching for certain files in certain directories, otherwise it will left it blank.

Best Answer

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