Set environment variable from terminal
How do I set environment variable for current process?
set env = "MYVAR"
set s = $ZF(-1,"export " _ env _ "=2048m")
set val = $system.Util.GetEnviron(env)
zw valReturns val="" because $zf(-1) spawns new process.
My understanding is that while you can easily retrieve environment variables visible to your process using the $system.Util.GetEnviron() interface, you simply do not have access to an equivalent $system.Util.SetEnviron(), as setting of environment variables can be quite tricky, risky and very OS specific.
If you do absolutely need to be able to change an environment variable for your running process, and you are dealing with one specific platform, you can probably create your own $ZF("SetEnviron",var,value) code, based on OS specific calls like the Linux system service setenviron()..
Again: the short answer would be that out of the box you will be able to read but not set environment variables.
If you really do have the need of setting them, you would need to look into building the necessary $ZF call-out interface based on your target OS.
HTH
Here's callout library for Windows and Linux to set environment variables for a current process.
I need to run Ensemble Service with special environment variables set, so it's current process for me.
Thank you, Stuart!
Here's callout library for Windows and Linux to set environment variables for a current process.
Set any environment variable you want.
Are you trying to execute some binary outside Caché or is it related to your current Caché process? By the type of the value you used as example, I'm attempted to say it's related to the JVM. If so, you can set most of the values using the its command-line arguments, including the heap size.
If that's related to your current process, you could trying doing the inverse procedure and capture the values from a .env file instead, it seems you can't get freshly set env variables because for the OS the Caché is already a running process. Maybe you can work around it using by source 'ing a script file that sets it, but I haven't tried.
However, I'd still go with the .env file instead. I did a little utility sometime ago because I thought it would be useful someday
That's the issue. You can't read any new environment variables after the Caché/Ensemble process (by that I meant at OS level, using a shell script) has been started. Not even Docker allows you to do that, since you must rebuild the container to "refresh" the variables. Otherwise that would be a security flaw as @Stefano Cairoli pointed out.
If you own the code, you can try simulating env variables by using globals, which is exactly the same thing the class Sample.Installer does or populate it from an external file, like a .env. Also $zf won't work because it always summons a new shell to execute your call, so even though the variables you set would be available there, it won't be there for your current process (again, OS level).
I'm planning on writing a callout wrapper for setenv. Callout works within the same process so it should work.
In most recent versions of Caché, we install a directory dev/cache/callout/demo. This contains demonstration code for writing $ZF() functions. One of the examples is tzchange(), and it works by setting a environment variable in the current process, and it should be easy enough to adapt to your needs. Start by reading czf.pdf.
System-wide setting of an environment variable is rather good solution sometimes, especially when Caché/IRIS is a single service of the given server. If was discussed a while ago along with some TZ issue with Caché, which was actual for those days versions: https://community.intersystems.com/post/linux-tz-environment-variable-not-being-set-and-impact-cach%C3%A9