how to define environment variable in a script

[Guest mastemmer]

I have been using other Linux distributions for some time, but i am new to Mandriva.

I want to use a startup script such as .profile or .bashrc to define and export some

environment variables such as

 

export CVSROOT=path/to/my/cvsroot

export CVS_RSH=ssh

 

If i type this in a command line the variables are defined as expected. I can check this with

 

echo $CVSROOT

 

The trouble is that if i run these variable definitions as a shell script, they simply take no effect.

The variable definitions are not exported out of the script.

What is missing?

[theYinYeti]

For your commands to take effect, you have to source the script, not execute it. Here's the syntax:

$ . ./script.sh

The first dot can be replaced with the keyword "source".

 

It is however a good idea to place those lines in the login scripts as you suggested. Did you try the ".bash_profile" file? This should be the appropriate file if you use bash as your login shell.

 

Yves.

[Guest mastemmer]

Thank you so much Yves, that is it.

Running the script as

source ./script.sh

really works.

Also placing my environment definitions in .bash_profile makes it work on startup.

 

M. Stemmer

[iphitus]

Not a good idea to put CVS variables in bash_profile, as if you ever need to use another CVS directory, it could cause some problems.

[Guest mastemmer]

Not a good idea to put CVS variables in bash_profile, as if you ever need to use another CVS directory, it could cause some problems.

 

Maybe, but I had no problem using -d option to access other CVS directories.