How to Set and List Environment Variables in Linux
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In Linux and Unix based systems environment variables are a set of dynamic named values, stored within the system that are used by applications launched in shells or subshells. In simple words, an environment variable is a variable with a name and an associated value.
Environment variables allow you to customize how the system works and the behavior of the applications on the system. For example, the environment variable can store information about the default text editor or browser, the path to executable files, or the system locale and keyboard layout settings.
In this guide, we will explain to read and set environment and shell variables.
Environment Variables and Shell Variables
Variables have the following format:
KEY=value
KEY="Some other value"
KEY=value1:value2
- The names of the variables are case-sensitive. By convention, environment variables should have UPPER CASE names.
- When assigning multiple values to the variable they must be separated by the colon
:
character. - There is no space around the equals
=
symbol.
Variables can be classified into two main categories, environment variables, and shell variables.
Environment variables are variables that are available system-wide and are inherited by all spawned child processes and shells.
Shell variables are variables that apply only to the current shell instance. Each shell such as zsh
and bash
, has its own set of internal shell variables.
There are several commands available that allow you to list and set environment variables in Linux:
env
– The command allows you to run another program in a custom environment without modifying the current one. When used without an argument it will print a list of the current environment variables.printenv
– The command prints all or the specified environment variables.set
– The command sets or unsets shell variables. When used without an argument it will print a list of all variables including environment and shell variables, and shell functions.unset
– The command deletes shell and environment variables.export
– The command sets environment variables.
List Environment Variables
The most used command to displays the environment variables is printenv
. If the name of the variable is passed as an argument to the command, only the value of that variable is displayed. If no argument is specified, printenv
prints a list of all environment variables, one variable per line.
For example, to display the value of the HOME
environment variable you would run:
printenv HOME
The output will print the path of the currently logged in user:
/home/linuxize
You can also pass more than one arguments to the printenv
command:
printenv LANG PWD
en_US
/home/linuxize
If you run the printenv
or env
command without any arguments it will show a list of all environment variables:
printenv
The output will look something like this:
LS_COLORS=rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35;...
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
LANG=en_US
S_COLORS=auto
XDG_SESSION_ID=5
USER=linuxize
PWD=/home/linuxize
HOME=/home/linuxize
SSH_CLIENT=192.168.121.1 34422 22
XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share:/usr/share:/var/lib/snapd/desktop
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/0
MAIL=/var/mail/linuxize
TERM=xterm-256color
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHLVL=1
LANGUAGE=en_US:
LOGNAME=linuxize
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
_=/usr/bin/printenv
Below are some of the most common environment variables:
USER
- The current logged in user.HOME
- The home directory of the current user.EDITOR
- The default file editor to be used. This is the editor that will be used when you typeedit
in your terminal.SHELL
- The path of the current user’s shell, such as bash or zsh.LOGNAME
- The name of the current user.PATH
- A list of directories to be searched when executing commands. When you run a command the system will search those directories in this order and use the first found executable.LANG
- The current locales settings.TERM
- The current terminal emulation.MAIL
- Location of where the current user’s mail is stored.
The printenv
and env
commands print only the environment variables. If you want to get a list of all variables, including environment, shell and variables, and shell functions
you can use the set
command:
set
BASH=/bin/bash
BASHOPTS=checkwinsize:cmdhist:complete_fullquote:expand_aliases:extglob:extquote:force_fignore:histappend:interactive_comments:login_shell:progcomp:promptvars:sourcepath
BASH_ALIASES=()
BASH_ARGC=()
BASH_ARGV=()
The command will display a large list of all variables so you probably want to pipe the output to the less
command.
set | less
You can also use the echo command
to print a shell variable. For example, to print the value of the BASH_VERSION
variable you would run:
echo $BASH_VERSION
4.4.19(1)-release
Setting Environment Variables
To better illustrate the difference between the Shell and Environment variables we’ll start with setting Shell Variables and then move on to the Environment variables.
To create a new shell variable with the name MY_VAR
and value Linuxize
simply type:
MY_VAR='Linuxize'
You can verify that the variable is set by using either echo $MY_VAR
of filtering the output of the set command with grep
set | grep MY_VAR
:
echo $MY_VAR
Linuxize
Use the printenv
command to check whether this variable is an environment variable or not:
printenv MY_VAR
The output will be empty which tell us that the variable is not an environment variable.
You can also try to print the variable in a new shell and you will get an empty output.
bash -c 'echo $MY_VAR'
The export
command is used to set Environment variables.
To create an environment variable simply export the shell variable as an environment variable:
export MY_VAR
You can check this by running:
printenv MY_VAR
Linuxize
If you try to print the variable in a new shell this time you will get the variable name printed on your terminal:
bash -c 'echo $MY_VAR'
Linuxize
You can also set environment variables in a single line:
export MY_NEW_VAR="My New Var"
Environment Variables created in this way are available only in the current session. If you open a new shell or if you log out all variables will be lost.
Persistent Environment Variables
To make Environment variables persistent you need to define those variables in the bash configuration files. In most Linux distributions when you start a new session, environment variables are read from the following files:
/etc/environment
- Use this file to set up system-wide environment variables. Variables in this file are set in the following format:FOO=bar
VAR_TEST="Test Var"
/etc/profile
- Variables set in this file are loaded whenever a bash login shell is entered. When declaring environment variables in this file you need to use theexport
command:export JAVA_HOME="/path/to/java/home"
export PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin
Per-user shell specific configuration files. For example, if you are using Bash, you can declare the variables in the
~/.bashrc
:export PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH"
To load the new environment variables into the current shell session use the source
command:
source ~/.bashrc
Conclusion
In this guide, we have shown you how to set and list environment and shell variables.
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions.