Environment variables in Eclipse

Question

I am able to run a sample hadoop program from the command prompt and am trying to run the same program from Eclipse, so that I can debug it and understand it better.

For the command line program, some environment variables are set in the .bashrc and the same are being read as System.getenv().get("HADOOP_MAPRED_HOME") in the hadoop program. But, when I am running a java program with System.getenv().get("HADOOP_MAPRED_HOME"), from Eclipse I am getting null.

I tried passing -DHADOOP_MAPRED_HOME=test to VM parameters in the runtime configurations from Eclipse, but still getting null in the standalone program. How to make the environment variables visible within Eclipse? When I iterate through System.getenv() in Eclipse, I see lot of variables like DISPLAY, USER, HOME and others. Where are they set? I am using Ubuntu 11.04.

Solution 1

The .bashrc file is used for setting variables used by interactive login shells. If you want those environment variables available in Eclipse you need to put them in /etc/environment.

Solution 2

You can also define an environment variable that is visible only within Eclipse.

Go to Run -> Run Configurations... and Select tab "Environment".

There you can add several environment variables that will be specific to your application.

Solution 3

I've created an eclipse plugin for this, because I had the same problem. Feel free to download it and contribute to it.

It's still in early development, but it does its job already for me.

https://github.com/JorisAerts/Eclipse-Environment-Variables

Solution 4

You can set the Hadoop home directory by sending a -Dhadoop.home.dir to the VM. To send this parameters to all your application that you execute inside eclipse, you can set them in Window->Preferences->Java->Installed JREs-> (select your JRE installation) -> Edit.. -> (set the value in the "Default VM arguments:" textbox). You can replace ${HADOOP_HOME} with the path to your Hadoop installation.

Solution 5

You can also start eclipse within a shell.

You export the enronment, before calling eclipse.

Example :

#!/bin/bash
export MY_VAR="ADCA"
export PATH="/home/lala/bin;$PATH"
$ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse -data $YOUR_WORK_SPACE_PATH

Then you can have multiple instances on eclipse with their own custome environment including workspace.

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Comments

[Praveen Sripati]

Thanks - it works - just had to reboot the machine - any way to avoid a reboot.

[Perception]

You can try source /etc/environment, but it's not garaunteed to replace environment variables in processes that are already running. Reboot is the safest bet.

[bschandramohan]

Max, this is applicable only for the current running Program. If you are running tests or other programs, each of those has to have the environment variable set again.

[bschandramohan]

Is there a equivalent in Mac Os X?

[Perception]

@ChandraMohan - see here for the best method to set environment variables for Mac OSX apps.

[Dorrin]

The previous solution did work for me and shows up in getenv() results. The JRE Default VM arguments does not work. I tried on Mac OS X 10.8 using Eclipse Juno.

[Marcs]

In linux it's enough to restart the greeter (gdm, lxdm, xdm, kdm, etc). Restart the greeter from outside Xorg, open a console (for example using CTRL+ALT+F2), login and restart the greeter service. Then go back to the Xorg session with (CTRL+ALT+F1), can be another F key on your system just try everyone of them.

[Paddy]

@Dorrin To access VM arguments, you have to use System.getProperty(). geetenv is for OS level variables.

[Admin]

You can do this, but probably shouldn't. It risks the environment variable's value being later changed in the OS or in Eclipse, such that the two end up contradicting each other.

[gwnp]

This worked extremely well. I was fighting with a bad install of osx and unable to reinstall at this time but this plugin circumvented the problem.

[Dag]

This is such a useful plugin, you should do some finishing touch and publish it in the eclipse marketplace.

[The Student Soul]

I was looking for a "global" solution to setting environment variable at one place for all applications running within Eclipse. This helped. +1

[Stijn de Witt]

This is the best way to do it imho, as it allows you to give each app your are developing on it's own config, instead of having to change your global environment each time.

[Andrii Karaivanskyi]

Thank you for the plugin! Works on STS 3.9.1 (Eclipse 4.7.1a)

[Shui shengbao]

Very helpful. I like this way.

[Karthik]

Super! This really works & removed my long term headache. Thank you!

[Stewart]

But if you want to run unit tests individually, you have to set this for each test individually, which can become annoying. How does one set that for all run configurations globally?

[GreenAsJade]

Totally agree with other commenters: publish!

[Don Giusuppe]

I've pusblished it: marketplace.eclipse.org/content/…

[Jerry Zhang]

Great. This is exactly what I want.

[Jerry Zhang]

There is a bug with Eclipse 4.10. I can install the plugin but could not open environment variables tab. Could you please take a look?

[demongolem]

But my problem is that environment variables from this tab are not being picked up

[edvard_munch]

Couldn't find a way to use these variables in external bash script on Ubuntu. The script being called via "Run external tool" button. JLinkGDBServerCLExe -if swd -speed 4000 -device "1986BE4" -singlerun x-terminal-emulator -e gdb-multiarch -x "$SCRIPT_DIR" SCRIPT_DIR is picked up on Windows with no problem, being used in external bin file start JLinkGDBServerCL.exe -if swd -speed 4000 -device "1986BE4" -singlerun start arm-none-eabi-gdb -x "%SCRIPT_DIR%gdbscript.txt%"