Setting Environment Variables in OS X Yosemite

.Setting Environment Variables in OS X Yosemite.md

Setting Environment Variables in OS X Yosemite

shell

• Terminal apps in OS X (Terminal, iTerm, etc.) process terminals as login shells, so these variables should be set in the ~/.bash_profile and not the ~/.bashrc file.

system (including GUI apps)

• Create a ~/Library/LaunchAgents/environment.variables.plist file to have launchd run a script at login that will set environment variables
• Create a /usr/local/bin/set-environment-variables.sh script (or wherever configured in the *.plist file) and "export" the environment variables here (bash syntax like "export JAVA_HOME ..." doesn't work here)
• Register the *.plist file with launchd

launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/environment.variables.plist

• Note the environment.variables.plist filename, the environment.variables label in the *.plist file match

bash_profile

# Add RVM to PATH for scripting
export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.rvm/bin"

# Anaconda
export PATH=${HOME}/anaconda/bin:${PATH}

# Load RVM into a shell session *as a function*
[[ -s "${HOME}/.rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] && source "${HOME}/.rvm/scripts/rvm"

alias less="less -X"
set -o vi

environment.variables.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>environment.variables</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/bin/set-environment-variables.sh</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/bin/set-environment-variables.sh</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</plist>

set-environment-variables.sh

#!/bin/bash

syslog -s -l warn "set-environment-variables.sh start"

launchctl setenv ANT_HOME /usr/local/opt/ant/libexec

launchctl setenv AXIS2_HOME /opt/apache-axis2/axis2-1.6.2

launchctl setenv CXF_HOME /opt/apache-cxf/apache-cxf-2.7.3

launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_31.jdk/Contents/Home

launchctl setenv GROOVY_HOME /usr/local/opt/groovy/libexec

launchctl setenv GRAILS_HOME /usr/local/opt/grails/libexec

launchctl setenv GRADLE_HOME /usr/local/opt/gradle/libexec

launchctl setenv M2_HOME /usr/local/opt/maven/libexec

launchctl setenv MAVEN_HOME /usr/local/opt/maven/libexec

launchctl setenv ORACLE_HOME /opt/oracle-instant-client/instantclient_11_2

launchctl setenv TNS_ADMIN /opt/oracle-instant-client/instantclient_11_2/network/admin

syslog -s -l warn "set-environment-variables.sh complete"