How to edit environment variables in a text editor?

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Please consider the PATH environment variable for example.

Instead of appending something to PATH from the terminal:

  • export PATH=$PATH:/your/new/path/here

and instead of overriding PATH from the terminal (desirably after a backup !)

  • export PATH=/your/new/path/here:

Is there a way to edit environment variables in a text editor like Vim or Nano and if so how to do it?

2

No, text editors work on files.
There is a principal problem: a text editor is a process, it runs with its own copy of the environment.
I could imagine of a shell-builtin "envedit", e.g. as a module of zsh. But I haven't seen one yet.
Here is an attempt in bash:

alias envedit='envtmp=/tmp/envtmp.$USER.$$; export -p > $envtmp; "${EDITOR:-vi}" $envtmp; . $envtmp; rm -f $envtmp; unset envtmp'

Now you can simply run
envedit
It exports the environment to a tmp file, edits it, and imports back to the environment. It cannot delete an environment variable yet.
As I said earlier, it is a copy of an environment, i.e. it works in the current shell and its process children, but not in other processes.

2 Likes
3

If you are asking how to permanently edit your environment, that would be done in an editor. But which files depends on what shell you are using, and which users you want the changes to apply to.

Bash reads a whole cascade of files at start-up, as listed here. The default versions are well commented.

My default set-up automatically puts /home/paul/bin:/home/paul/.local/bin at the start of my PATH, using $HOME for my username. I don't like long paths, so I generally either copy small scripts into one of those, or add symbolic links there to my development directory for the version of code I want by default.

$ ls -l ~/bin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 paul paul    1663 Feb 23 15:27 g
-rwxrwxr-x 1 paul paul     300 Feb 13 15:46 Say
lrwxrwxrwx 1 paul paul      22 May 10  2020 wdog -> /home/paul/D_wdog/wdog.V14

Many packages (e.g. Oracle DBMS) update the profile files as part of their installation.

4

To edit environment variables using a text editor, you'll need to locate and modify the configuration file where these variables are stored. The process can vary based on your operating system. Here's how you can do it for a few common ones:

Windows:

  1. Open Environment Variables Window:
  • Press Win + S to open the search bar.
  • Type Environment Variables and select "Edit the system environment variables".
  • In the System Properties window, click on the "Environment Variables..." button.
  1. Edit System Variables:
  • In the Environment Variables window, you'll see two sections: User variables and System variables.
  • For system-wide changes, edit the variables under "System variables". Find the variable you want to edit, select it, and click "Edit..."
  1. Edit in Text Editor:
  • For some variables, like PATH, you might want to edit them directly in a text editor.
  • Click on the variable you want to edit, then click "Edit..."
  • Copy the entire contents to a text editor like Notepad or Notepad++.
  • Make your changes, then copy them back into the Environment Variable window and click "OK".

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

  1. Edit .bashrc or .bash_profile:
  • Open your terminal.
  • Use a text editor like nano, vim, or gedit to edit either ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile:
nano ~/.bashrc

or

nano ~/.bash_profile
  1. Edit Variables:
  • Look for lines that export variables, like:
export PATH=$PATH:/your/new/path
  • Make your changes, then save and close the file.
  1. Apply Changes:
  • After editing, you can apply the changes by either restarting your terminal session or running:
source ~/.bashrc

or

source ~/.bash_profile

macOS:

  1. Edit .bash_profile:
  • Open Terminal.
  • Use a text editor like nano or vim to edit ~/.bash_profile:
nano ~/.bash_profile
  1. Edit Variables:
  • Look for lines that export variables, like:
export PATH=$PATH:/your/new/path
  • Make your changes, then save and close the file.
  1. Apply Changes:
  • After editing, you can apply the changes by either restarting your terminal session or running:
source ~/.bash_profile

Editing Other Configurations:

  • For more complex configurations or system-wide changes, you might need to edit other files. For example:
    • /etc/environment (Linux)
    • Registry Editor (Windows)

Remember to be cautious when editing these files, as incorrect changes can cause issues with your system or applications. Make backups of configuration files before modifying them, and double-check your changes to ensure accuracy.