Environment variables in Mac OS X

Question

Update: The link below does not have a complete answer. Having to set the path or variable in two places (one for GUI and one for shell) is lame.

Not Duplicate of: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/135688/setting-environment-variables-in-os-x

Coming from a Windows background where it's very easy to set and modify environment variables (just go to System Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables), it does not seem to be that straight forward on Mac OS 10.5. Most references say I should update /etc/profile or ~/.profile. Are those the equivalent of System Variables and User Variables? For example, where should I set my JAVA_HOME variable?

EDIT:

I want to be able to access the variable from the terminal as well as an app like Eclipse. Also, I hope I don't have to restart/logout to make this take effect.

Answer 1

For GUI apps, you'll have to create and edit ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist. More details here. You will need to log out for these to take effect. I'm not sure if they also affect applications launched from Terminal, but I assume they would.

For apps launched from Terminal, you can also edit the ~/.profile file.

Answer 2

I have no idea to be honest.

But you already have java installed for you on mac os. I think their assumption is that this is a bsd system and if you want to mess with the system you need to go to the linux part.

I think you can add it to the /etc/launchd.conf to make a global variable

Edit: found this maybe it can be usefull http://www.digitaledgesw.com/node/31

Answer 3

You can read up on linux, which is pretty close to what Mac OS X is. Or you can read up on BSD Unix, which is a little closer. For the most part, the differences between Linux and BSD don't amount to much.

/etc/profile are system environment variables.

~/.profile are user-specific environment variables.

"where should I set my JAVA_HOME variable?"

• Do you have multiple users? Do they care? Would you mess some other user up by changing a /etc/profile?

Generally, I prefer not to mess with system-wide settings even though I'm the only user. I prefer to edit my local settings.

Answer 4

There's no need for duplication. You can set environment variables used by launchd (and child processes, i.e. anything you start from Spotlight) using launchctl setenv.

For example, if you want to mirror your current path in launchd after setting it up in .bashrc or wherever:

PATH=whatever:you:want
launchctl setenv PATH $PATH