how do I add global Environment Variables in Gentoo?

Question

I know they get read from /etc/env.d/ but I tried adding in my own file in there (00example) with a single env variable but they aren't picked up after either env-update.

How does a user declare them globablly and why did my method not work?

linux 3.0.6

Solution 1

See http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=2&chap=5 : you need to run env-update so that your file gets merged into /etc/profile.env.

Solution 2

If you created the file /etc/env.d/00example, it would only get set when you attempt to run the command example. Are you sure you aren't looking for setting variables in /etc/env.d/99local (or /etc/profile)?

Comments

[chickenkiller]

the file name has nothing to do with commands typed later. /etc/env.d is only used to organise global environment variables in several files for clarity.

[blippy]

I ran env-update nothing happened.

[chickenkiller]

what about env-update && source /etc/profile ? Check that your variable is stored in /etc/profile.env...

[blippy]

maybe - what's 99local? It's not in my system at the moment

[Jon Lin]

It's what the docs say to stick system wide user variables, but chickenkiller is right, the names doesn't matter, just the order that they get created/appended. Out of curiosity, what variable did you attempt to set?

[chickenkiller]

also, make sure the files starts with 2 real digits (0 and not O for example), the python code that parses your file is touchy about it... see github.com/funtoo/portage-funtoo/blob/stable/pym/portage/uti‌​l/…

[blippy]

that worked cheers - what's the reason?

[chickenkiller]

maybe your /etc/profile is not sourced at boot... did you log in as root? Maybe /etc/profile is handled differently for root user... Not sure...

[chickenkiller]

If the variable is not visible at startup without a manual source /etc/profile, even as root, it shows something goes wrong. At least not like you want it to behave. So maybe try to edit /etc/profile and add set -x before the /etc/profile.env handling stuff, and set -x after it... Then see what trace is given at a root login... You could put it on pastebin.com so I can have a look.

[DrColossos]

The file /etc/profile is only read when a login shell is starting up. Changes to it will not take effect automatically; you need to log in again, or do source /etc/profile manually.

[chickenkiller]

Totally agreed. The suggestion was to see whether we actually source it or not at a login shell startup. Are you suggesting that a root login is not seen as an interactive login?