Setting environment variables via launchd conf no longer works in OS X Yosemite El Capitan macOS Sierra Mojave

Question

It looks like the launchd conf does not load my environment variable anymore  Has anyone else noticed that   Is there another solution to permanently set environment variables

User · Answer

It is possible to set environment variables on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite with 3 files + 2 commands.

Main file with environment variables definition:

$ ls -la /etc/environment 
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  369 Oct 21 04:42 /etc/environment
$ cat /etc/environment
#!/bin/sh

set -e

syslog -s -l warn "Set environment variables with /etc/environment $(whoami) - start"

launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME      /usr/local/jdk1.7
launchctl setenv MAVEN_HOME     /opt/local/share/java/maven3

if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
    export PATH=""
    eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
    launchctl setenv PATH $PATH
fi

osascript -e 'tell app "Dock" to quit'

syslog -s -l warn "Set environment variables with /etc/environment $(whoami) - complete"

Service definition to load environment variables for user applications (terminal, IDE, ...):

$ ls -la /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  504 Oct 21 04:37 /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
$ sudo cat /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.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.user</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/etc/environment</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/etc/environment</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

The same service definition for root user applications:

$ ls -la /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  499 Oct 21 04:38 /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist
$ sudo cat /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.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</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/etc/environment</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/etc/environment</string>
    </array>
</dict>
</plist>

And finally we should register these services:

$ launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist

What we get:

The only place to declare system environment variables: /etc/environment
Instant auto-update of environment variables after modification of /etc/environment file - just relaunch your application

Issues / problems:

In order your env variables were correctly taken by applications after system reboot you will need:

either login twice: login => logout => login
or close & re-open applications manually, where env variables should be taken
or do NOT use feature "Reopen windows when logging back".

This happens due to Apple denies explicit ordering of loaded services, so env variables are registered in parallel with processing of the "reopen queue".

But actually, I reboot my system only several times per year (on big updates), so it is not a big deal.

User · Answer

What did work for me  inspired from aax  thanks     Paste this into  Library LaunchDaemons com apple launchd limit plist then reboot     lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt     lt plist version  1 0  gt     lt dict gt     lt key gt Label lt  key gt     lt string gt eicar lt  string gt     lt key gt ProgramArguments lt  key gt     lt array gt       lt string gt  bin launchctl lt  string gt       lt string gt limit lt  string gt       lt string gt maxfiles lt  string gt       lt string gt 16384 lt  string gt       lt string gt 16384 lt  string gt     lt  array gt     lt key gt RunAtLoad lt  key gt     lt true  gt     lt key gt ServiceIPC lt  key gt     lt false  gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt    If you need it step by step     Launch terminal Type sudo su then enter your password to log in as root Type vi  Library LaunchDaemons com apple launchd limit plist When into the vi editor  press the key i to enter insert mode then paste the exact code content above    v   This will force the limit to 16384 files per process and 16384 files total Save your file and quit using esc then  wq Reboot your system  and check that it is working using the command launchctl limit   I hope this helped you

User · Answer

Original answer   You can still use launchctl setenv variablename value to set a variable so that is picked up by all applications  graphical applications started via the Dock or Spotlight  in addition to those started via the terminal     Obviously you will not want to do this every time you login     Edit   To avoid this  launch AppleScript Editor  enter a command like this   do shell script  launchctl setenv variablename value     Use multiple lines if you want to set multiple variables   Now save    s  as File format  Application  Finally open System Settings   Users  amp  Groups   Login Items and add your new application    Original answer   To work around this place all the variables you wish to define in a short shell script  then have a look at this previous answer about how to run a script on MacOS login  That way the the script will be invoked when the user logs in    Edit   Neither solution is perfect as the variables will only be set for that specific user but I am hoping guessing that may be all you require   If you do have multiple users you could either manually set a Login Item for each of them or place a copy of com user loginscript plist in each of their local Library LaunchAgents directories  pointing at the same shell script    Granted  neither of these workarounds is as convenient as  etc launchd conf    Further Edit   A user below mentions that this did not work for him  However I have tested on multiple Yosemite machines and it does work for me  If you are having a problem  remember that you will need to restart applications for this to take effect  Additionally if you set variables in the terminal via    profile or    bash profile  they will override things set via launchctl setenv for applications started from the shell

User · Answer

You can give https   github com ersiner osx-env-sync a try  It handles both command line and GUI apps from a single source and works withe the latest version of OS X  Yosemite    You can use path substitutions and other shell tricks since what you write is regular bash script to be sourced by bash in the first place  No restrictions    Check osx-env-sync documentation and you ll understand how it achieves this    I answered a similar question here where you ll find more

User · Answer

I added the variables in the    bash profile in the following way  After you are done restart log out and log in  export M2 HOME  Users robin softwares apache-maven-3 2 3 export ANT HOME  Users robin softwares apache-ant-1 9 4 launchctl setenv M2 HOME  M2 HOME launchctl setenv ANT HOME  ANT HOME export PATH  usr bin  bin  usr sbin  sbin  usr local bin  Users robin softwares apache-maven-3 2 3 bin  Users robin softwares apache-ant-1 9 4 bin launchctl setenv PATH  PATH   NOTE  without restart log out and log in you can apply these changes using   source    bash profile

User · Answer

Here are the commands to restore the old behavior     create a script that calls launchctl iterating through  etc launchd conf echo     bin sh  while read line       -n  line      do launchctl  line   done  lt   etc launchd conf     gt   usr local bin launchd conf sh    make it executable chmod  x  usr local bin launchd conf sh    launch the script at startup echo   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt   lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt dict gt     lt key gt Label lt  key gt     lt string gt launchd conf lt  string gt     lt key gt ProgramArguments lt  key gt     lt array gt       lt string gt sh lt  string gt       lt string gt -c lt  string gt       lt string gt  usr local bin launchd conf sh lt  string gt     lt  array gt     lt key gt RunAtLoad lt  key gt     lt true  gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt     gt   Library LaunchAgents launchd conf plist   Now you can specify commands like setenv JAVA HOME  Library Java Home in  etc launchd conf   Checked on El Capitan

User · Answer

Cited from  Apple Developer Relations 10-Oct-2014 09 12 PM     After much deliberation  engineering has removed this feature    The file  etc launchd conf was intentionally removed for security reasons    As a workaround  you could run launchctl limit as root early during boot  perhaps from a LaunchDaemon          Solution      Put code in to  Library LaunchDaemons com apple launchd limit plist by bash-script       bin bash  echo   lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt   lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt dict gt           lt key gt Label lt  key gt           lt string gt eicar lt  string gt           lt key gt ProgramArguments lt  key gt           lt array gt                   lt string gt  bin launchctl lt  string gt                   lt string gt limit lt  string gt                   lt string gt core lt  string gt                   lt string gt unlimited lt  string gt           lt  array gt           lt key gt RunAtLoad lt  key gt           lt true  gt           lt key gt ServiceIPC lt  key gt           lt false  gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt     sudo tee  Library LaunchDaemons com apple launchd limit plist

User · Answer

The solution is to add your variable to  etc profile  Then everything works as expected  Of course you MUST do it as a root user with sudo nano  etc profile  If you edit it with any other way the system will complain with a damaged  etc profile  even if you change the permissions to root

User · Answer

Create an environment plist file in   Library LaunchAgents  with this content    lt  xml version  1 0  encoding  UTF-8   gt   lt  DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC  -  Apple  DTD PLIST 1 0  EN   http   www apple com DTDs PropertyList-1 0 dtd  gt   lt plist version  1 0  gt   lt dict gt     lt key gt Label lt  key gt     lt string gt my startup lt  string gt     lt key gt ProgramArguments lt  key gt     lt array gt       lt string gt sh lt  string gt       lt string gt -c lt  string gt       lt string gt      launchctl setenv PRODUCTS PATH  Users mortimer Projects my products     launchctl setenv ANDROID NDK HOME  Applications android-ndk     launchctl setenv PATH  PATH  Applications gradle bin      lt  string gt      lt  array gt     lt key gt RunAtLoad lt  key gt     lt true  gt   lt  dict gt   lt  plist gt    You can add many launchctl commands inside the  lt string gt  lt  string gt  block   The plist will activate after system reboot  You can also use launchctl load   Library LaunchAgents environment plist to launch it immediately    Edit   The same solution works in El Capitan too   Xcode 7 0  doesn t evaluate environment variables by default  The old behaviour can be enabled with this command   defaults write com apple dt Xcode UseSanitizedBuildSystemEnvironment -bool NO    Edit   There a couple of situations where this doesn t quite work  If the computer is restarted and  Reopen windows when logging back in  is selected  the reopened windows may not see the variables  Perhaps they are opened before the agent is run   Also  if you log in via ssh  the variables will not be set  so you ll need to set them in    bash profile   Finally  this doesn t seem to work for PATH on El Capitan and Sierra  That needs to be set via  launchctl config user path      and in  etc paths

[environment-variables] Setting environment variables via launchd.conf no longer works in OS X Yosemite/El Capitan/macOS Sierra/Mojave?

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