In terminal:
VAR="Extremely long and often used command"
echo $VAR
Output:
Extremely long and often used command
So far it works fine, but after restarting a terminal my variable doesn't exist. How to fix it?
asked Nov 16, 2012 at 16:00
2 Answers
You can put it in your .bash_profile, which gets executed every time you log in.
Or, if it is an alias for a long command, you can put this in your .bash_aliases file under your home directory:
alias short_version="very long command here"
answered Nov 16, 2012 at 18:25
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1If you have your aliases in
.bash_aliases, you must source that file (withsourceor.) in.bashrc(or otherwise) for it to work - it's not done automatically, at least not for me. Nov 16, 2012 at 22:34 -
1@EmanuelBerg, some distros (notably Ubuntu) provide a default
.bashrcthat automatically sources.bash_aliasesif it exists. But you're right, it's not a standard Bash startup file.– cjmNov 19, 2012 at 7:32 -
@cjm: Aha, so that's it. I've heard many people talk about that file so I suspected it was if not a standard, then at least a common practice, from somewhere. Ubuntu. Nov 19, 2012 at 20:00
You can create/modify/delete permanent variables using kv-bash functions:
1) Download kv-bash file from github:
git clone https://github.com/damphat/kv-bash.git
cp -ar ./kv-bash/kv-bash /usr/local
chmod +x /usr/local/kv-bash
2) Import kv-bash functions:
# You can also put this line in .bash_profile
source kv-bash
3) Now create/modify variables
#let try create/modify/delete variable
kvset myEmail john@example.com
kvset myCommand "Very Long Long Long String"
#read the varible
kvget myEmail
#you can also use in another script with $(kvget myEmail)
echo $(kvget myEmail)
#delete variable
kvdel myEmail
I learned it from this https://hub.docker.com/r/cuongdd1/cloud-provisioning-packs/~/dockerfile/
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Just letting people know there is a re-written fork of this with far more features. github.com/imyller/kv-sh Has dump, import, restore, exists and the ability for a local and fallback (ro) default database.– ShannessAug 16, 2020 at 6:49
.bashrc. If it's an environment variable put it in.profile, and you'll want to export it too. That should work. There's no way to know why it doesn't for you unless you provide more info (do you do anything weird with your rc files, etc.)