Linux Service Command – Using Environment Variables

centosenvironment-variableslinuxredhatservice

I am trying to start a service that requires a env. variable to be set to certain path. I set this variable in "/etc/profile.d/". However when I start this service using the service command, it doesn't work.

man service:

service runs a System V init script in as predictable environment as possible,
removing most environment variables and with current working directory set to /.

So it seems that service is removing my variables. How should I set the variables up to keep them from being removed. Or is that something i should not do.

I could start the service manually using the init-scripts, or even hardcode the path into the script, but I'd like to know how to use it with the service command.

Best Answer

As of Fedora 16, service only accepts LANG and TERM environment variables, everything else gets discarded. So, even if your current {CentOS,RHEL} accepts the variables somehow, be prepared for the future where it does not work any more.

So, hard coding the init script and/or setting up the variables in the daemon settings file itself would be your choices.

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Using a configuration file, and adding the variables through the application's startup script is really the correct way to handle this. If you need to provide certain environment variables to non-shell scripts or binaries (like perl, python, or java), you can call them with a shell wrapper, provide the needed variables, and then exec the real script.

If your applications are started by some sort of script, it must be started by calling a shell (the shebang at the top of the file), even if the user has no login shell. You could therefor modify the environment variables through the shell's rc files just as you would for regular users. I believe you would still need to insert the BASH_ENV variable to get the rc files to trigger, since you're calling the script non-interactively.

I'm going to highly recommend that you use the former method, and create some sort of configuration for the applications. It will be much easier to manage in the long run.

Best Answer

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