Set ENV variable at startup

Edit /etc/launchd.plist (or create it if it doesn't exist) and add a line:

setenv YOUR ENVVARIABLE /some/value

This file is read by launchd when the system boots and any environment variables set there are available for all processes.

Apparently the file is not loaded until a GUI starts up. So it does not work on my server.

Not so. /etc/launchd.conf should be loaded first at boot time.

launchd is responsible for the entire boot process - launching all background tasks and services. As such it has to read its configuration file at boot.

Now it is possible for an individual to have their own launchd.plist file that is loaded when they log in, but that would have to be stored in their home directory, not in /etc/

Did you check permissions on the file? Or the logs?

It wouldn't surprise me to find that launchd won't load the file if it's world-writable since that could constitute a security violation (you don't want just anyone adding entries to this file). That could explain why it didn't load at boot.

Camelot wrote:
Edit /etc/launchd.plist

that should be /etc/launchd.conf not /etc/launchd.plist, I think.

(or create it if it doesn't exist) and add a line:

setenv YOUR ENVVARIABLE /some/value

This file is read by launchd when the system boots and any environment variables set there are available for all processes.

that should be /etc/launchd.conf not /etc/launchd.plist, I think.

You're right, V.K. - thanks for catching that one! 🙂

A .plist file is always XML.

If this is intended to be a general statement, then it is false. plists can have several formats. In recent editions of OS X, most preference files are binary.

Gnarlodious wrote:

> Not so. /etc/launchd.conf should be loaded first at boot time.

If that is true, the only explanation is that it must be a bug.

I tested it and it does indeed work as you say. when I ssh into a computer, variables set in /etc/launchd.conf are not loaded. I don't know enough about these things to judge if it's a bug or if that's how it should be (I suspect the latter). but in any case if you need some variables to load when you ssh you can just add them to the global shell configuration files. for example, if you ssh into an account whose login shell is bash, add the following line to /etc/.profile

export YOURENVVARIABLE=some-value

if you need to you can do the corresponding things for global configuration files for other shells. the syntax will vary depending on the shell of course.

I strongly suspect there is a better way to do this but the above should work.