Linux – Permanent Environment Variable for all users

environment-variableslinux

I want to have all users on the system to have an environment variable named SPI that points to /usr/local/share_ideas directory. How do I do it?

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I'd put it in the /etc directory in the file /etc/profile.d/myvariable.sh. In this file I'd set it like this:

SPI=/usr/local/share_ideas

Files in the /etc/profile.d directory are automatically sourced as part of a user logging into the system. The files that end in a ".sh" are used by the bash shell.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Setting environment variables for system users

You could add a file to /etc/profile.d/ to set variables based on $UID. If you want to fine tune things more based on groups, see man id.

if [ "$(id -u)" -eq 666 ]; then
    ...
fi

Environment variables for daemons

There is no universal method to set system-wide environment variables.

With systemd, add Environment= statements to the service configuration.

With Upstart, add env statements to the job configuration.

With SysVinit, add export statements to the service startup script.

For cron jobs, add VAR=VALUE lines to the crontab.

LD_PRELOAD changes the behavior of a program in ways that were not intended by the author of the program, so you should set it only for the programs that really need it. Even if there was a way to set a system-wide environment variable, LD_PRELOAD should not be set so broadly.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Setting environment variables for system users

Environment variables for daemons

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