MySQL Cookbook

Setting Environment Variables

Problem

You need to modify your operating environment, for example, to change your shell’s PATH setting.

Solution

Edit the appropriate shell startup file. Under Windows NT-based systems, another alternative is to use the System control panel.

Discussion

The shell or command interpreter you use to run programs from the command-line prompt includes an environment in which you can store variable values. Some of these variables are used by the shell itself. For example, it uses PATH to determine which directories to look in for programs such as mysql. Other variables are used by other programs (such as PERL5LIB, which tells Perl where to look for library files used by Perl scripts).

Your shell determines the syntax used to set environment variables, as well as the startup file in which to place the settings. Typical startup files for various shells are shown in the following table. If you’ve never looked through your shell’s startup files, it’s a good idea to do so to familiarize yourself with their contents.

Shell	Possible startup files
csh, tcsh	.login, .cshrc, .tcshrc
sh, bash, ksh	.profile .bash_profile, .bash_login, .bashrc
DOS prompt	C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

The following examples show how to set the PATH variable so that it includes the directory where the mysql program is installed. The examples assume there is an existing PATH setting in one of your startup files. If you have no PATH setting currently, simply add the appropriate line or lines to ...