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Kapil Gorve
Kapil Gorve

Posted on • Originally published at jskap.com on

Set environment variable in Windows and WSL Linux in terminal

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Windows set env variable from the command line

  • Open command line. set API_KEY=123
  • echo %API_KEY% should print your API_KEY.
  • This env variable is set for the context of the current cmd line.

Windows set env variable permanently using the command line

  • Open the command line as admin. setx API_KEY "123" /M
  • Close the current shell. Open a new shell.
  • echo %API_KEY% should print your API_KEY.
  • This env variable is set for all future shell instances permanently for your system.

WSL Linux set env variable from a bash terminal

  • Launch your wsl instance.
  • $ API_KEY=123
  • $ echo $API_KEY should print your API_KEY.

WSL Linux set env variable permanently from a bash terminal

  • Launch your wsl instance.
  • $ sudo vim ~/.bashrc
  • Enter your password.
  • Press i to go into edit mode. Go to the end of the file using arrow key.
  • Add your variable as API_KEY=123 at the end of the file. If your variable has spaces, use quotes.Example - API_KEY= 'My Key'
  • Press esc key to get out of edit mode.
  • Enter :wq and press enter . This will save and close the file.
  • $ source ~/.bashrc will load your recent changes into your current shell.
  • $ echo $API_KEY should print your API_KEY.

This post was originally published at https://www.jskap.com/blog/set-environment-variables-windows-wsl-linux/

👋 Hi! I’m Kapil. I am always chatty about building things, sharing my learnings, freelancing. Come say hi to me at https://twitter.com/kapilgorve

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