How to set system-wide environment variables in Linux

Last updated on November 22, 2020 by Dan Nanni

Set System-wide Environment Variables on CentOS or RHEL

In RHEL-based Linux, login shell executes /etc/profile script when a user logs in. This script customizes environment variables for all users system-wide. The script /etc/profile also sources all the scripts placed in /etc/profile.d directory. Therefore, in order to set system-wide environment variables in RHEL-based Linux, you can create a custom file with .sh extension in /etc/profile.d as follows.

$ sudo vi /etc/profile.d/proxy.sh

export http_proxy=http://my.proxy.com:8000
export https_proxy=http://my.proxy.com:8000

If the proxy requires authentication, you can specify username and password as well.

export http_proxy=http://username:[email protected]:8000
export https_proxy=http://username:[email protected]:8000

Set System-wide Environment Variables on Ubuntu or Debian

Debian-based systems do not use /etc/profile.d directory. Therefore, in order to set system-wide environment in Ubuntu or Debian, you can use /etc/environment instead.

$ sudo vi /etc/environment

http_proxy=http://my.proxy.com:8000
https_proxy=http://my.proxy.com:8000

For proxy with authentication:

http_proxy=http://username:[email protected]:8000
https_proxy=http://username:[email protected]:8000

Support Xmodulo

This website is made possible by minimal ads and your gracious donation via PayPal (Credit Card) or Bitcoin (1M161JGAkz3oaHNvTiPFjNYkeABox8rb4g).

Please note that this article is published by Xmodulo.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you would like to use the whole or any part of this article, you need to cite this web page at Xmodulo.com as the original source.