Setting up system wide environment variables

gael · 07-03-2009, 11:09 AM

Hi all,

I am working with CentOS 5.3 and I have to set up a system wide environment variable.

I put it here: /etc/environment

Is it the correct way to define a system wide environment variable or should I put it in /etc/profile?

Please let me know your thoughts/ idea / experience

Thanks in advance.
Gael

gael · 07-03-2009, 11:16 AM

Ok I have answered my own question.

It has to be in

Code:

/etc/profile.d/myfile.sh

In the .sh file I just add to do an export.

And it works OK!
It is loading even after a sudo su whereas when it was in /etc/environment the environment variable was not present when I did a sudo su.

If you have any comment or another way to proceed, please let me know.

Gael

portamenteff · 07-03-2009, 01:12 PM

which variables are you wishing to set? If you wish to set it in BASH you would use

Code:

/bin/bash

then to set the path variable

Code:

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/bin

or whatever path you wish. Use extreme caution for the PATH variable though. Many commands in Red Hat are in the default path. You WILL lose them if you don't watch it. Read the man pages on the PATH variable first. Try export with the command prompt and it won't break the system though.

Code:

export PS1=$PS1:\u\h\t\w

This will change the default prompt to the username, hostname, time, and working directory.

portamenteff · 07-03-2009, 01:28 PM

I may have missread your question. Do you wish to make these changes permanent?