What is the best way to export env variable within Chef

Question

I am trying to set env variable within Chef recipe so that after the recipe is run, I can do echo $VAR1

  bash 'set_env_var' do
    code <<-EOH
      echo export VAR1="https://#{node['fqdn']}" >> /etc/profile
      source /etc/profile
    EOH
    not_if "grep -q VAR1="https://#{node['fqdn']}" >> /etc/profile"
  end

Please let me know if there is a better way to do the same.

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 11 '16 at 02:38

0

This is not a feature that Unix supports. The closest you can get is writing to something like /etc/profile.d if your distro's default shell RC files support it but that both won't have any effect on the current shell (you would need to start a new one) and doesn't cover all execution scenarios. Environment variables are probably the wrong answer to whatever you are trying to solve.

answered Aug 11 '16 at 02:38

coderanger

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should I consider adding value of `VAR1` in a file and then reading out the `VAR1` value from the file. – meallhour Aug 11 '16 at 02:54
Depends on what you're doing, but yes, a configuration file would be more standard. – coderanger Aug 11 '16 at 04:37

What is the best way to export env variable within Chef

1 Answers1