What we're doing:
We're doing an automated deployment using a tool called Nolio. One of the steps we need to do is to set a few environment variables for applications that are being deployed - for example, JAVA_HOME pointing to our preferred java install directory.
We're using the SET command to permanently set the environment variables - and in most ways, it works great. If I right click on my computer and go into environment variables, they all appear perfectly.
The problem:
Unfortunately, later in the deployment, some command line commands are executed that rely on the environment variables, and the environment variables appear to not be set. Using SET without parameters verifies this by displaying all currently available variables.
Now, if I restart the computer, the command line commands work fine. So, the issue is that while the variables are permanently set and do appear in the GUI, they are not propagated to the command prompts until I reboot.
Another interesting tidbit: If I put the commands in a BAT file and double click it, it runs fine, but if I execute it in the command prompt the variables don't resolve prior to a reboot.
Does anyone know a way around this?
First, what version of Nolio do you use?
The Environment variables to which you set value, in the context of one Nolio action, stay in the scope of this action. (It's like opening two different shells on every action)
The best practice for this case would be using the environment variables arrays inputs in the Nolio 'Run Command Line' action. You should write two arrays of parallel Env variable names and values, and give them as input to the 'Run Command Line' action.
It appears your variables are not in scope for the command prompt. At what point in your deployment process are you using the SET command? Interesting that the GUI recognizes the values, but the command prompt doesn't until you've restarted.
Also, I'm not clear as to why using a .bat file is undesired. I can come up with my own reasons, but what are yours?
EDIT
I've found this article that shows a step that you didn't mention. Have you tried:
rem Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable and insert it into the system path.
rem This will make the javac and java commands reachable from the command line.
set JAVA_HOME="C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_14"
set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
I'm not entirely sure why the command prompt won't recognise commands and the batch files will, but you could use SETX as an alternative to SET to see if that resolves your issues.
Related
I would like to be able to cd into a folder that is added to a system as a system variable in Windows 11. Here is a visual representation of the problem:
As you can see, windows command prompt is able to "resolve" variables from the "User variables" section of the Environment variables configuration in Windows, however variables from the "System variables" aren't.
I need to cd into %VS140COMNTOOLS% folder but as you can see it won't be resolved by the command prompt. Is this by design?
VS140COMNTOOLS also doesn't appear in set output.
How can I navigate into %VS140COMNTOOLS%?
System variables and user vars end up in a single environment block. When expanding env vars, there's no concept of user/system. User vars override system vars.
Also: each process gets its own copy of env vars which is resolved when the process launches. Therefore, if a process appears to be "missing" an env var, one of the following happened:
The variable was set after the process launched. For example maybe this command prompt was open during the installation of something that created an env var. You'll need to re-launch the command prompt to get the var.
OR, the process modified it / removed it.
If I wanted to compile code in java, I go to environment variables and set the PATH variable to the bin of the jdk on my computer. Now my command prompt recognizes commands like "javac" and "java" and I can compile/run code without any issues.
But if I wanted to compile code in C/C++, suddenly commands such as "gcc" or "g++" are no longer recognized by my command prompt because the PATH variable was overwritten to the java location. I could change it back to the location of my C/C++ compilers, but then my command prompt would no longer recognize the java commands.
How can you make the command prompt recognize all commands? There must be a better way than changing environment variables every time.
You can append all needed paths to your PATH variable. You will want to put them in order of priority, in case there are matches that may potentially be found on multiple path entries.
For example, for Windows:
set PATH=%JAVA_PATH%;%PATH%
set PATH=%CPP_PATH%;%PATH%
...
Or, as a single line:
set PATH=%JAVA_PATH%;%CPP_PATH%;...;%PATH%
(Hypothetical entries - substitute as appropriate.)
I have a question regarding environment variables in Windows. So, I set an environment variable using SETX command:
SETX my_var VAR
After that, I use SET m to see if my variable is set. It shows it isn't. However, the variable appears in HKCU\Environment. I exit the command prompt window and open a new one. Typing SET m again makes my variable appear.
I restart explorer.exe and open a new command prompt window. When using SET m, my variable isn't there anymore, but it is in HKCU\Environment.
I don't understand this behavior. Shouldn't it appear also after restarting explorer.exe, giving the fact that it is still in HKCU\Environment? I am missing something, I just don't understand what.
Later edit: I have tried doing the same thing on a computer running Windows 7 and I found out there is no problem. Don't know what is wrong in my case. I want anyway to thank everybody for their help.
Works for me on windows 8.1
What windows version are you on?
setx sets the variable for future sessions, not any existing session (including this one).
No-one ever claimed that there was any logical reason for the 'not this one' quirk. It's eacy to overcome though - just add SETXX.BAT somewhere on your path
SETXX.BAT
SETX %1 %2
set "%1=%2"
and execute it as
call SETXX my_var VAR
(you may need to play around with quotes if you are attempting to set(x) a value containing spaces)
I have been trying to setup a environment variable in Cygwin using the command export PRIMOSBASE=/directory/for/primosfiles.
And when i check the variable using the command echo $PRIMOSBASE it shows the /directory/for/primosfiles. hopeful this means the environment variable is set.
But when i try to run a shell script(primos) for the /directory/for/primosfiles, it shows
./primos: line 8: /prilaunch.pl: No such file or directory
chmod: failed to get attributes of `step1.sh': No such file or directory
which means i have not set the PRIMOSBASE environment. could anyone please tell me where i am going wrong...
Thanks ...
Run
echo "export PRIMOSBASE=/directory/for/primosfiles" >> ~/.bashrc
to append the command to the end of your .bashrc file, so that the variable is set each time you use Cygwin. Then run
source ~/.bashrc
to make it take effect immediately.
NOTE: Make sure you use double brackets (>>) to append. It might be a good idea to make a backup of .bashrc just in case. If you're not comfortable with I/O redirection, an alternative is to edit .bashrc with an editor. I think vim is among the default tools in Cygwin.
I had a similar issue trying to get ANDROID_HOME to work in a Cygwin window. When I used the linux path separators, as follows
ANDROID_HOME=/cygdrive/c/Users/User/AppData/Local/Android/sdk my gradlew build script complained it couldn't find the sdk in ANDROID_HOME.
I eventually discovered that I had to set my environment variable in the Windows format, including Windows path separators '\', as follows
ANDROID_HOME=C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Android\sdk
Note: the PATH and several other environment variables set in Windows are converted into Linux format. I hope this helps others who want/need to use Cygwin + Windows + essentially Windows programs that need environment variables.
I am writing installation in a Makefile in which I need to set the PATH env. variable.
In the windows part of it, I found the following:
set: With set PATH="%PATH%;%CD%" I can change the PATH inside the running environment. There are two problems with this:
The environment is a spawned cmd.exe by make which gets its variable affected and the effect removed as soon as it closes
Even if the previous problem could be solved, still the cmd.exe that calls make would close one day and the modified PATH lost.
setx: A microsoft tool that can permanently change env. variables. According to microsoft itself, this is the only command-line option to do this. Using setx PATH "%PATH%;%CD%" -m however, turns path into the literal %PATH%;%CD% and doesn't replace the variables by their contents!
Note that I am calling make from cmd.exe not cygwin or other modified windows shells that act more like linux. What I'm saying is that, although I can use $(PATH) in my makefile (instead of %PATH%), I can't use pwd (instead of %CD%)
Also note that if in cmd itself I run:
setx PATH "%PATH%;%CD%" -m
it works perfectly. Somehow I need to make make execute this command.
Do you have any idea how to fix this, or what workaround do I have?
P.S. Just for the record, echo "%PATH%;%CD%" in the Makefile also echoes the literal "%PATH%;%CD%" rather than let cmd.exe handle it
Back in the day i Borland C++ Free Command Line tools included a version of make which played well with the dos/windows command line. Probably still floating around somewhere.
Workaround:
Create a .bat file, put the command there, and invoke it from the Makefile.
I still am interested in a direct fix in the Makefile though.