BASH: setting an environment variable from within my script doesn't set it anywhere else - how can I export globally? Simple example within

Question

PROMPT> pwd
/Users/jon/dev/test

PROMPT> ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x   3 jon   102B Aug 27 21:34 ./
drwxr-xr-x  14 jon   476B Aug 27 21:33 ../
-rwxr-xr-x   1 jon   147B Aug 27 21:34 init*

PROMPT> cat init
#!/bin/sh
DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
export SCRIPT_HOME=${DIR%/bin}
echo "SCRIPT_HOME has been set to: $SCRIPT_HOME"

PROMPT> ./init
SCRIPT_HOME has been set to: /Users/jon/dev/test

PROMPT> echo $SCRIPT_HOME

PROMPT> why did that command not work?
-bash: why: command not found

PROMPT>

export makes a shell variable available to any subprocesses of the shell in which it was defined, but not to the parent process of the shell in which was defined. — lurker
– lurker, Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 1:56

iamauser · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-28 02:20:19Z

1

Instead you should try the following :

PROMPT>. ./init

Notice the extra dot . and the space between ./init. That is important. It is similar to source init.

answered Aug 28, 2013 at 2:20

iamauser

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