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Can I export a variable to the environment from a Bash script without sourcing it?
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I'm trying to write a shell script that, when run, will set some environment variables that will stay set in the caller's shell.
setenv FOO foo
in csh/tcsh, or
export FOO=foo
in sh/bash only set it during the script's execution.
I already know that
source myscript
will run the commands of the script rather than launching a new shell, and that can result in setting the "caller's" environment.
But here's the rub:
I want this script to be callable from either bash or csh. In other words, I want users of either shell to be able to run my script and have their shell's environment changed. So 'source' won't work for me, since a user running csh can't source a bash script, and a user running bash can't source a csh script.
Is there any reasonable solution that doesn't involve having to write and maintain TWO versions on the script?
Use the "dot space script" calling syntax. For example, here's how to do it using the full path to a script:
. /path/to/set_env_vars.sh
And here's how to do it if you're in the same directory as the script:
. set_env_vars.sh
These execute the script under the current shell instead of loading another one (which is what would happen if you did ./set_env_vars.sh). Because it runs in the same shell, the environmental variables you set will be available when it exits.
This is the same thing as calling source set_env_vars.sh, but it's shorter to type and might work in some places where source doesn't.
Your shell process has a copy of the parent's environment and no access to the parent process's environment whatsoever. When your shell process terminates any changes you've made to its environment are lost. Sourcing a script file is the most commonly used method for configuring a shell environment, you may just want to bite the bullet and maintain one for each of the two flavors of shell.
You're not going to be able to modify the caller's shell because it's in a different process context. When child processes inherit your shell's variables, they're
inheriting copies themselves.
One thing you can do is to write a script that emits the correct commands for tcsh
or sh based how it's invoked. If you're script is "setit" then do:
ln -s setit setit-sh
and
ln -s setit setit-csh
Now either directly or in an alias, you do this from sh
eval `setit-sh`
or this from csh
eval `setit-csh`
setit uses $0 to determine its output style.
This is reminescent of how people use to get the TERM environment variable set.
The advantage here is that setit is just written in whichever shell you like as in:
#!/bin/bash
arg0=$0
arg0=${arg0##*/}
for nv in \
NAME1=VALUE1 \
NAME2=VALUE2
do
if [ x$arg0 = xsetit-sh ]; then
echo 'export '$nv' ;'
elif [ x$arg0 = xsetit-csh ]; then
echo 'setenv '${nv%%=*}' '${nv##*=}' ;'
fi
done
with the symbolic links given above, and the eval of the backquoted expression, this has the desired result.
To simplify invocation for csh, tcsh, or similar shells:
alias dosetit 'eval `setit-csh`'
or for sh, bash, and the like:
alias dosetit='eval `setit-sh`'
One nice thing about this is that you only have to maintain the list in one place.
In theory you could even stick the list in a file and put cat nvpairfilename between "in" and "do".
This is pretty much how login shell terminal settings used to be done: a script would output statments to be executed in the login shell. An alias would generally be used to make invocation simple, as in "tset vt100". As mentioned in another answer, there is also similar functionality in the INN UseNet news server.
In my .bash_profile I have :
# No Proxy
function noproxy
{
/usr/local/sbin/noproxy #turn off proxy server
unset http_proxy HTTP_PROXY https_proxy HTTPs_PROXY
}
# Proxy
function setproxy
{
sh /usr/local/sbin/proxyon #turn on proxy server
http_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8118/
HTTP_PROXY=$http_proxy
https_proxy=$http_proxy
HTTPS_PROXY=$https_proxy
export http_proxy https_proxy HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY
}
So when I want to disable the proxy,
the function(s) run in the login shell and sets the variables
as expected and wanted.
It's "kind of" possible through using gdb and setenv(3), although I have a hard time recommending actually doing this. (Additionally, i.e. the most recent ubuntu won't actually let you do this without telling the kernel to be more permissive about ptrace, and the same may go for other distros as well).
$ cat setfoo
#! /bin/bash
gdb /proc/${PPID}/exe ${PPID} <<END >/dev/null
call setenv("foo", "bar", 0)
END
$ echo $foo
$ ./setfoo
$ echo $foo
bar
This works — it isn't what I'd use, but it 'works'. Let's create a script teredo to set the environment variable TEREDO_WORMS:
#!/bin/ksh
export TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
exec $SHELL -i
It will be interpreted by the Korn shell, exports the environment variable, and then replaces itself with a new interactive shell.
Before running this script, we have SHELL set in the environment to the C shell, and the environment variable TEREDO_WORMS is not set:
% env | grep SHELL
SHELL=/bin/csh
% env | grep TEREDO
%
When the script is run, you are in a new shell, another interactive C shell, but the environment variable is set:
% teredo
% env | grep TEREDO
TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
%
When you exit from this shell, the original shell takes over:
% exit
% env | grep TEREDO
%
The environment variable is not set in the original shell's environment. If you use exec teredo to run the command, then the original interactive shell is replaced by the Korn shell that sets the environment, and then that in turn is replaced by a new interactive C shell:
% exec teredo
% env | grep TEREDO
TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
%
If you type exit (or Control-D), then your shell exits, probably logging you out of that window, or taking you back to the previous level of shell from where the experiments started.
The same mechanism works for Bash or Korn shell. You may find that the prompt after the exit commands appears in funny places.
Note the discussion in the comments. This is not a solution I would recommend, but it does achieve the stated purpose of a single script to set the environment that works with all shells (that accept the -i option to make an interactive shell). You could also add "$#" after the option to relay any other arguments, which might then make the shell usable as a general 'set environment and execute command' tool. You might want to omit the -i if there are other arguments, leading to:
#!/bin/ksh
export TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
exec $SHELL "${#-'-i'}"
The "${#-'-i'}" bit means 'if the argument list contains at least one argument, use the original argument list; otherwise, substitute -i for the non-existent arguments'.
You should use modules, see http://modules.sourceforge.net/
EDIT: The modules package has not been updated since 2012 but still works ok for the basics. All the new features, bells and whistles happen in lmod this day (which I like it more): https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/research-development/tacc-projects/lmod
Another workaround that I don't see mentioned is to write the variable value to a file.
I ran into a very similar issue where I wanted to be able to run the last set test (instead of all my tests). My first plan was to write one command for setting the env variable TESTCASE, and then have another command that would use this to run the test. Needless to say that I had the same exact issue as you did.
But then I came up with this simple hack:
First command ( testset ):
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -eq 1 ]
then
echo $1 > ~/.TESTCASE
echo "TESTCASE has been set to: $1"
else
echo "Come again?"
fi
Second command (testrun ):
#!/bin/bash
TESTCASE=$(cat ~/.TESTCASE)
drush test-run $TESTCASE
You can instruct the child process to print its environment variables (by calling "env"), then loop over the printed environment variables in the parent process and call "export" on those variables.
The following code is based on Capturing output of find . -print0 into a bash array
If the parent shell is the bash, you can use
while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' line; do
export "$line"
done < <(bash -s <<< 'export VARNAME=something; env -0')
echo $VARNAME
If the parent shell is the dash, then read does not provide the -d flag and the code gets more complicated
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
mkfifo $TMPDIR/fifo
(bash -s << "EOF"
export VARNAME=something
while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' line; do
echo $(printf '%q' "$line")
done < <(env -0)
EOF
) > $TMPDIR/fifo &
while read -r line; do export "$(eval echo $line)"; done < $TMPDIR/fifo
rm -r $TMPDIR
echo $VARNAME
Under OS X bash you can do the following:
Create the bash script file to unset the variable
#!/bin/bash
unset http_proxy
Make the file executable
sudo chmod 744 unsetvar
Create alias
alias unsetvar='source /your/path/to/the/script/unsetvar'
It should be ready to use so long you have the folder containing your script file appended to the path.
It's not what I would call outstanding, but this also works if you need to call the script from the shell anyway. It's not a good solution, but for a single static environment variable, it works well enough.
1.) Create a script with a condition that exits either 0 (Successful) or 1 (Not successful)
if [[ $foo == "True" ]]; then
exit 0
else
exit 1
2.) Create an alias that is dependent on the exit code.
alias='myscript.sh && export MyVariable'
You call the alias, which calls the script, which evaluates the condition, which is required to exit zero via the '&&' in order to set the environment variable in the parent shell.
This is flotsam, but it can be useful in a pinch.
You can invoke another one Bash with the different bash_profile.
Also, you can create special bash_profile for using in multi-bashprofile environment.
Remember that you can use functions inside of bashprofile, and that functions will be avialable globally.
for example, "function user { export USER_NAME $1 }" can set variable in runtime, for example: user olegchir && env | grep olegchir
Another option is to use "Environment Modules" (http://modules.sourceforge.net/). This unfortunately introduces a third language into the mix. You define the environment with the language of Tcl, but there are a few handy commands for typical modifications (prepend vs. append vs set). You will also need to have environment modules installed. You can then use module load *XXX* to name the environment you want. The module command is basically a fancy alias for the eval mechanism described above by Thomas Kammeyer. The main advantage here is that you can maintain the environment in one language and rely on "Environment Modules" to translate it to sh, ksh, bash, csh, tcsh, zsh, python (?!?!!), etc.
I created a solution using pipes, eval and signal.
parent() {
if [ -z "$G_EVAL_FD" ]; then
die 1 "Rode primeiro parent_setup no processo pai"
fi
if [ $(ppid) = "$$" ]; then
"$#"
else
kill -SIGUSR1 $$
echo "$#">&$G_EVAL_FD
fi
}
parent_setup() {
G_EVAL_FD=99
tempfile=$(mktemp -u)
mkfifo "$tempfile"
eval "exec $G_EVAL_FD<>'$tempfile'"
rm -f "$tempfile"
trap "read CMD <&$G_EVAL_FD; eval \"\$CMD\"" USR1
}
parent_setup #on parent shell context
( A=1 ); echo $A # prints nothing
( parent A=1 ); echo $A # prints 1
It might work with any command.
I don't see any answer documenting how to work around this problem with cooperating processes. A common pattern with things like ssh-agent is to have the child process print an expression which the parent can eval.
bash$ eval $(shh-agent)
For example, ssh-agent has options to select Csh or Bourne-compatible output syntax.
bash$ ssh-agent
SSH2_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-era/ssh2-10690-agent; export SSH2_AUTH_SOCK;
SSH2_AGENT_PID=10691; export SSH2_AGENT_PID;
echo Agent pid 10691;
(This causes the agent to start running, but doesn't allow you to actually use it, unless you now copy-paste this output to your shell prompt.) Compare:
bash$ ssh-agent -c
setenv SSH2_AUTH_SOCK /tmp/ssh-era/ssh2-10751-agent;
setenv SSH2_AGENT_PID 10752;
echo Agent pid 10752;
(As you can see, csh and tcsh uses setenv to set varibles.)
Your own program can do this, too.
bash$ foo=$(makefoo)
Your makefoo script would simply calculate and print the value, and let the caller do whatever they want with it -- assigning it to a variable is a common use case, but probably not something you want to hard-code into the tool which produces the value.
Technically, that is correct -- only 'eval' doesn't fork another shell. However, from the point of view of the application you're trying to run in the modified environment, the difference is nil: the child inherits the environment of its parent, so the (modified) environment is conveyed to all descending processes.
Ipso facto, the changed environment variable 'sticks' -- as long as you are running under the parent program/shell.
If it is absolutely necessary for the environment variable to remain after the parent (Perl or shell) has exited, it is necessary for the parent shell to do the heavy lifting. One method I've seen in the documentation is for the current script to spawn an executable file with the necessary 'export' language, and then trick the parent shell into executing it -- always being cognizant of the fact that you need to preface the command with 'source' if you're trying to leave a non-volatile version of the modified environment behind. A Kluge at best.
The second method is to modify the script that initiates the shell environment (.bashrc or whatever) to contain the modified parameter. This can be dangerous -- if you hose up the initialization script it may make your shell unavailable the next time it tries to launch. There are plenty of tools for modifying the current shell; by affixing the necessary tweaks to the 'launcher' you effectively push those changes forward as well.
Generally not a good idea; if you only need the environment changes for a particular application suite, you'll have to go back and return the shell launch script to its pristine state (using vi or whatever) afterwards.
In short, there are no good (and easy) methods. Presumably this was made difficult to ensure the security of the system was not irrevocably compromised.
The short answer is no, you cannot alter the environment of the parent process, but it seems like what you want is an environment with custom environment variables and the shell that the user has chosen.
So why not simply something like
#!/usr/bin/env bash
FOO=foo $SHELL
Then when you are done with the environment, just exit.
You could always use aliases
alias your_env='source ~/scripts/your_env.sh'
I did this many years ago. If I rememeber correctly, I included an alias in each of .bashrc and .cshrc, with parameters, aliasing the respective forms of setting the environment to a common form.
Then the script that you will source in any of the two shells has a command with that last form, that is suitable aliased in each shell.
If I find the concrete aliases, I will post them.
Other than writings conditionals depending on what $SHELL/$TERM is set to, no. What's wrong with using Perl? It's pretty ubiquitous (I can't think of a single UNIX variant that doesn't have it), and it'll spare you the trouble.
I am writing a makefile, and my shell is zsh. All is operating well until I hit an if statement. I've tried using the traditional ifeq makefile statement, but that doesn't appear to work when using zsh. So, I've tried just using zsh if statements, like the following:
if [[ "$(BUILD_ENV)" == "DEV" ]]; then
#echo dev environment
else
#echo not dev environment
fi
Every time I run it, I get the following error:
...
if [[ "DEV" == "DEV" ]]; then
zsh:1: parse error near `then'
make: *** [build] Error 1
I've tried removing the semicolon (;), putting then on a new line (like in bash syntax), but to no avail.
How can I properly perform an if else statement in a makefile, using zsh as the shell?
It's irrelevant what shell you use (consider the insanity if make always used the shell of the user who invoked it... no makefile could ever be portable between two people!)
make always uses /bin/sh. If you want to use some different shell you must explicitly set it in your makefile by adding:
SHELL := /bin/zsh
However, I don't recommend this because not every system will have zsh installed.
You should simply write your recipes to use portable POSIX syntax rather than using zsh extensions. In this case, that means using [..] instead of [[...]] and using = for equality instead of ==.
Also, remember that each logical line of a makefile is invoked in a separate shell so if you want to write an if-statement you have to use backslashes to ensure all the physical lines are combined into a single logical line:
mytarget:
#if [ "$(BUILD_ENV)" = "DEV" ]; then \
echo dev environment; \
else \
echo not dev environment; \
fi
gk#Jarvis:~$ sudi
No command 'sudi' found, did you mean:
Command 'sudo' from package 'sudo-ldap' (universe)
Command 'sudo' from package 'sudo' (main)
sudi: command not found
I have currently implemented a simple 'Did you mean..?' for plain English words which works as follow:
If user enters 'Kack', check the alphabets around every alphabet in the word on a QWERTY keyboard and substitute them one by one. (e.g. here they would be J,L,M,I,O for 'K'; Q,W,S,Z,X for 'a' and so on)
Return the word with the most probability (the user entered word itself too if that is the case) as the most likely word based on training on a corpus of text.
How is the code-suggestion implemented in the linux command line?
bash does not implement the suggestion logic; it is in a function defined as part of your bash initialization file, and it was put there by your distribution (Ubuntu/Debian, at a guess).
bash provides the mechanism for implementating such a function: when it attempts to execute a command, and the command is not found, it invokes the function command_not_found_handle, if it is defined.
On my machine (an Ubuntu variant), that function is defined as follows:
$ type command_not_found_handle
command_not_found_handle is a function
command_not_found_handle ()
{
if [ -x /usr/lib/command-not-found ]; then
/usr/lib/command-not-found -- "$1";
return $?;
else
if [ -x /usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found ]; then
/usr/share/command-not-found/command-not-found -- "$1";
return $?;
else
printf "%s: command not found\n" "$1" 1>&2;
return 127;
fi;
fi
}
(And /usr/lib/command-not-found exists, is executable, and is a Python script.)
From the Bash man page:
COMMAND EXECUTION
[…]
If the name is neither a shell function nor a builtin, and contains no slashes, bash searches each element of the PATH for a directory containing an executable file by that name. Bash uses a hash table to remember the full pathnames of executable files (see hash under SHELL BUILTIN COMMANDS below). A full search of the directories in PATH is performed only if the command is not found in the hash table. If the search is unsuccessful, the shell searches for a defined shell function named command_not_found_handle. If that function exists, it is invoked with the original command and the original command's arguments as its arguments, and the function's exit status becomes the exit status of the shell. If that function is not defined, the shell prints an error message and returns an exit status of 127.
Let's try this out:
$ foobar
bash: foobar: command not found
$ function command_not_found_handle { echo "I'm so sorry, what is '$1'?"; }
$ foobar
I'm so sorry, what is 'foobar'?
Your shell initialization code might install a more useful command_not_found_handle. You would typically find such code in the system-wide configuration in /etc/bash.bashrc or a file sourced by it. Your distribution might install a handler there to invoke an external program that queries the distribution's package manager for the command or “similar” commands. For your Ubuntu, this would be implemented in the command-not-found package.
The default configuration files shipped by distributions are usually kept very general so the function might check whether the command-not-found binary is installed and, if so, call it or otherwise print a simple error message.
function command_not_found_handle {
if [ -x /usr/bin/command-not-found ]
then
/usr/bin/command-not-found "$1"
else
echo "$1: Command not found" >&2
return 127
fi
}
This way, the configuration file does not have to be changed if the command-not-found package is installed or removed again later.
I don't know how that program for Ubuntu is implemented but typically, such a tool would have a list of all known commands and find the most similar one. It might then check whether that program is installed and, if not, check what package provides it and suggest installing that.
Searching for “similar text” is usually done by computing the edit distance between two strings. Taking into account how likely mistyping a given letter is, given the current keyboard layout, would be a very smart addition.
Is have a keyword in bash? Or do bash completion scripts use a language that is not bash?
have gcc &&
_gcc()
{
It is common. See: grep "have .* &&" /etc/bash_completion.d/*
I could not find any information on the bash completion tutorials I've seen and I could not find any information in man bash. It's also difficult to google "have". Where do I find documentation on this?
I'm guessing it has to do with making sure that there gcc exists in the PATH?
edit: yes. /etc/bash_completion contains:
have()
{
unset -v have
# Completions for system administrator commands are installed as well in
# case completion is attempted via `sudo command ...'.
PATH=$PATH:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin type $1 &>/dev/null &&
have="yes"
}
have and _have are just two functions defined in the base bash_completion file. Between the two, they form a wrapper around the built-in type command to determine if a particular command/program available.
# This function checks whether we have a given program on the system.
#
_have()
{
# Completions for system administrator commands are installed as well in
# case completion is attempted via `sudo command ...'.
PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin type $1 &>/dev/null
}
# Backwards compatibility for compat completions that use have().
# #deprecated should no longer be used; generally not needed with dynamically
# loaded completions, and _have is suitable for runtime use.
have()
{
unset -v have
_have $1 && have=yes
}
This question already has answers here:
Can I export a variable to the environment from a Bash script without sourcing it?
(13 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
The community reviewed whether to reopen this question last year and left it closed:
Original close reason(s) were not resolved
I'm trying to write a shell script that, when run, will set some environment variables that will stay set in the caller's shell.
setenv FOO foo
in csh/tcsh, or
export FOO=foo
in sh/bash only set it during the script's execution.
I already know that
source myscript
will run the commands of the script rather than launching a new shell, and that can result in setting the "caller's" environment.
But here's the rub:
I want this script to be callable from either bash or csh. In other words, I want users of either shell to be able to run my script and have their shell's environment changed. So 'source' won't work for me, since a user running csh can't source a bash script, and a user running bash can't source a csh script.
Is there any reasonable solution that doesn't involve having to write and maintain TWO versions on the script?
Use the "dot space script" calling syntax. For example, here's how to do it using the full path to a script:
. /path/to/set_env_vars.sh
And here's how to do it if you're in the same directory as the script:
. set_env_vars.sh
These execute the script under the current shell instead of loading another one (which is what would happen if you did ./set_env_vars.sh). Because it runs in the same shell, the environmental variables you set will be available when it exits.
This is the same thing as calling source set_env_vars.sh, but it's shorter to type and might work in some places where source doesn't.
Your shell process has a copy of the parent's environment and no access to the parent process's environment whatsoever. When your shell process terminates any changes you've made to its environment are lost. Sourcing a script file is the most commonly used method for configuring a shell environment, you may just want to bite the bullet and maintain one for each of the two flavors of shell.
You're not going to be able to modify the caller's shell because it's in a different process context. When child processes inherit your shell's variables, they're
inheriting copies themselves.
One thing you can do is to write a script that emits the correct commands for tcsh
or sh based how it's invoked. If you're script is "setit" then do:
ln -s setit setit-sh
and
ln -s setit setit-csh
Now either directly or in an alias, you do this from sh
eval `setit-sh`
or this from csh
eval `setit-csh`
setit uses $0 to determine its output style.
This is reminescent of how people use to get the TERM environment variable set.
The advantage here is that setit is just written in whichever shell you like as in:
#!/bin/bash
arg0=$0
arg0=${arg0##*/}
for nv in \
NAME1=VALUE1 \
NAME2=VALUE2
do
if [ x$arg0 = xsetit-sh ]; then
echo 'export '$nv' ;'
elif [ x$arg0 = xsetit-csh ]; then
echo 'setenv '${nv%%=*}' '${nv##*=}' ;'
fi
done
with the symbolic links given above, and the eval of the backquoted expression, this has the desired result.
To simplify invocation for csh, tcsh, or similar shells:
alias dosetit 'eval `setit-csh`'
or for sh, bash, and the like:
alias dosetit='eval `setit-sh`'
One nice thing about this is that you only have to maintain the list in one place.
In theory you could even stick the list in a file and put cat nvpairfilename between "in" and "do".
This is pretty much how login shell terminal settings used to be done: a script would output statments to be executed in the login shell. An alias would generally be used to make invocation simple, as in "tset vt100". As mentioned in another answer, there is also similar functionality in the INN UseNet news server.
In my .bash_profile I have :
# No Proxy
function noproxy
{
/usr/local/sbin/noproxy #turn off proxy server
unset http_proxy HTTP_PROXY https_proxy HTTPs_PROXY
}
# Proxy
function setproxy
{
sh /usr/local/sbin/proxyon #turn on proxy server
http_proxy=http://127.0.0.1:8118/
HTTP_PROXY=$http_proxy
https_proxy=$http_proxy
HTTPS_PROXY=$https_proxy
export http_proxy https_proxy HTTP_PROXY HTTPS_PROXY
}
So when I want to disable the proxy,
the function(s) run in the login shell and sets the variables
as expected and wanted.
It's "kind of" possible through using gdb and setenv(3), although I have a hard time recommending actually doing this. (Additionally, i.e. the most recent ubuntu won't actually let you do this without telling the kernel to be more permissive about ptrace, and the same may go for other distros as well).
$ cat setfoo
#! /bin/bash
gdb /proc/${PPID}/exe ${PPID} <<END >/dev/null
call setenv("foo", "bar", 0)
END
$ echo $foo
$ ./setfoo
$ echo $foo
bar
This works — it isn't what I'd use, but it 'works'. Let's create a script teredo to set the environment variable TEREDO_WORMS:
#!/bin/ksh
export TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
exec $SHELL -i
It will be interpreted by the Korn shell, exports the environment variable, and then replaces itself with a new interactive shell.
Before running this script, we have SHELL set in the environment to the C shell, and the environment variable TEREDO_WORMS is not set:
% env | grep SHELL
SHELL=/bin/csh
% env | grep TEREDO
%
When the script is run, you are in a new shell, another interactive C shell, but the environment variable is set:
% teredo
% env | grep TEREDO
TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
%
When you exit from this shell, the original shell takes over:
% exit
% env | grep TEREDO
%
The environment variable is not set in the original shell's environment. If you use exec teredo to run the command, then the original interactive shell is replaced by the Korn shell that sets the environment, and then that in turn is replaced by a new interactive C shell:
% exec teredo
% env | grep TEREDO
TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
%
If you type exit (or Control-D), then your shell exits, probably logging you out of that window, or taking you back to the previous level of shell from where the experiments started.
The same mechanism works for Bash or Korn shell. You may find that the prompt after the exit commands appears in funny places.
Note the discussion in the comments. This is not a solution I would recommend, but it does achieve the stated purpose of a single script to set the environment that works with all shells (that accept the -i option to make an interactive shell). You could also add "$#" after the option to relay any other arguments, which might then make the shell usable as a general 'set environment and execute command' tool. You might want to omit the -i if there are other arguments, leading to:
#!/bin/ksh
export TEREDO_WORMS=ukelele
exec $SHELL "${#-'-i'}"
The "${#-'-i'}" bit means 'if the argument list contains at least one argument, use the original argument list; otherwise, substitute -i for the non-existent arguments'.
You should use modules, see http://modules.sourceforge.net/
EDIT: The modules package has not been updated since 2012 but still works ok for the basics. All the new features, bells and whistles happen in lmod this day (which I like it more): https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/research-development/tacc-projects/lmod
Another workaround that I don't see mentioned is to write the variable value to a file.
I ran into a very similar issue where I wanted to be able to run the last set test (instead of all my tests). My first plan was to write one command for setting the env variable TESTCASE, and then have another command that would use this to run the test. Needless to say that I had the same exact issue as you did.
But then I came up with this simple hack:
First command ( testset ):
#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -eq 1 ]
then
echo $1 > ~/.TESTCASE
echo "TESTCASE has been set to: $1"
else
echo "Come again?"
fi
Second command (testrun ):
#!/bin/bash
TESTCASE=$(cat ~/.TESTCASE)
drush test-run $TESTCASE
You can instruct the child process to print its environment variables (by calling "env"), then loop over the printed environment variables in the parent process and call "export" on those variables.
The following code is based on Capturing output of find . -print0 into a bash array
If the parent shell is the bash, you can use
while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' line; do
export "$line"
done < <(bash -s <<< 'export VARNAME=something; env -0')
echo $VARNAME
If the parent shell is the dash, then read does not provide the -d flag and the code gets more complicated
TMPDIR=$(mktemp -d)
mkfifo $TMPDIR/fifo
(bash -s << "EOF"
export VARNAME=something
while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' line; do
echo $(printf '%q' "$line")
done < <(env -0)
EOF
) > $TMPDIR/fifo &
while read -r line; do export "$(eval echo $line)"; done < $TMPDIR/fifo
rm -r $TMPDIR
echo $VARNAME
Under OS X bash you can do the following:
Create the bash script file to unset the variable
#!/bin/bash
unset http_proxy
Make the file executable
sudo chmod 744 unsetvar
Create alias
alias unsetvar='source /your/path/to/the/script/unsetvar'
It should be ready to use so long you have the folder containing your script file appended to the path.
It's not what I would call outstanding, but this also works if you need to call the script from the shell anyway. It's not a good solution, but for a single static environment variable, it works well enough.
1.) Create a script with a condition that exits either 0 (Successful) or 1 (Not successful)
if [[ $foo == "True" ]]; then
exit 0
else
exit 1
2.) Create an alias that is dependent on the exit code.
alias='myscript.sh && export MyVariable'
You call the alias, which calls the script, which evaluates the condition, which is required to exit zero via the '&&' in order to set the environment variable in the parent shell.
This is flotsam, but it can be useful in a pinch.
You can invoke another one Bash with the different bash_profile.
Also, you can create special bash_profile for using in multi-bashprofile environment.
Remember that you can use functions inside of bashprofile, and that functions will be avialable globally.
for example, "function user { export USER_NAME $1 }" can set variable in runtime, for example: user olegchir && env | grep olegchir
Another option is to use "Environment Modules" (http://modules.sourceforge.net/). This unfortunately introduces a third language into the mix. You define the environment with the language of Tcl, but there are a few handy commands for typical modifications (prepend vs. append vs set). You will also need to have environment modules installed. You can then use module load *XXX* to name the environment you want. The module command is basically a fancy alias for the eval mechanism described above by Thomas Kammeyer. The main advantage here is that you can maintain the environment in one language and rely on "Environment Modules" to translate it to sh, ksh, bash, csh, tcsh, zsh, python (?!?!!), etc.
I created a solution using pipes, eval and signal.
parent() {
if [ -z "$G_EVAL_FD" ]; then
die 1 "Rode primeiro parent_setup no processo pai"
fi
if [ $(ppid) = "$$" ]; then
"$#"
else
kill -SIGUSR1 $$
echo "$#">&$G_EVAL_FD
fi
}
parent_setup() {
G_EVAL_FD=99
tempfile=$(mktemp -u)
mkfifo "$tempfile"
eval "exec $G_EVAL_FD<>'$tempfile'"
rm -f "$tempfile"
trap "read CMD <&$G_EVAL_FD; eval \"\$CMD\"" USR1
}
parent_setup #on parent shell context
( A=1 ); echo $A # prints nothing
( parent A=1 ); echo $A # prints 1
It might work with any command.
I don't see any answer documenting how to work around this problem with cooperating processes. A common pattern with things like ssh-agent is to have the child process print an expression which the parent can eval.
bash$ eval $(shh-agent)
For example, ssh-agent has options to select Csh or Bourne-compatible output syntax.
bash$ ssh-agent
SSH2_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-era/ssh2-10690-agent; export SSH2_AUTH_SOCK;
SSH2_AGENT_PID=10691; export SSH2_AGENT_PID;
echo Agent pid 10691;
(This causes the agent to start running, but doesn't allow you to actually use it, unless you now copy-paste this output to your shell prompt.) Compare:
bash$ ssh-agent -c
setenv SSH2_AUTH_SOCK /tmp/ssh-era/ssh2-10751-agent;
setenv SSH2_AGENT_PID 10752;
echo Agent pid 10752;
(As you can see, csh and tcsh uses setenv to set varibles.)
Your own program can do this, too.
bash$ foo=$(makefoo)
Your makefoo script would simply calculate and print the value, and let the caller do whatever they want with it -- assigning it to a variable is a common use case, but probably not something you want to hard-code into the tool which produces the value.
Technically, that is correct -- only 'eval' doesn't fork another shell. However, from the point of view of the application you're trying to run in the modified environment, the difference is nil: the child inherits the environment of its parent, so the (modified) environment is conveyed to all descending processes.
Ipso facto, the changed environment variable 'sticks' -- as long as you are running under the parent program/shell.
If it is absolutely necessary for the environment variable to remain after the parent (Perl or shell) has exited, it is necessary for the parent shell to do the heavy lifting. One method I've seen in the documentation is for the current script to spawn an executable file with the necessary 'export' language, and then trick the parent shell into executing it -- always being cognizant of the fact that you need to preface the command with 'source' if you're trying to leave a non-volatile version of the modified environment behind. A Kluge at best.
The second method is to modify the script that initiates the shell environment (.bashrc or whatever) to contain the modified parameter. This can be dangerous -- if you hose up the initialization script it may make your shell unavailable the next time it tries to launch. There are plenty of tools for modifying the current shell; by affixing the necessary tweaks to the 'launcher' you effectively push those changes forward as well.
Generally not a good idea; if you only need the environment changes for a particular application suite, you'll have to go back and return the shell launch script to its pristine state (using vi or whatever) afterwards.
In short, there are no good (and easy) methods. Presumably this was made difficult to ensure the security of the system was not irrevocably compromised.
The short answer is no, you cannot alter the environment of the parent process, but it seems like what you want is an environment with custom environment variables and the shell that the user has chosen.
So why not simply something like
#!/usr/bin/env bash
FOO=foo $SHELL
Then when you are done with the environment, just exit.
You could always use aliases
alias your_env='source ~/scripts/your_env.sh'
I did this many years ago. If I rememeber correctly, I included an alias in each of .bashrc and .cshrc, with parameters, aliasing the respective forms of setting the environment to a common form.
Then the script that you will source in any of the two shells has a command with that last form, that is suitable aliased in each shell.
If I find the concrete aliases, I will post them.
Other than writings conditionals depending on what $SHELL/$TERM is set to, no. What's wrong with using Perl? It's pretty ubiquitous (I can't think of a single UNIX variant that doesn't have it), and it'll spare you the trouble.