Setting an environment variable in Linux

Hello,

I want to set an environment variable in Linux while building using ant.

For example:

If I run the following command,

$ ant test

The "test" target has to set the environment variable foo=bar.
Means the "test" target has to run the command `export foo=bar`.

So far investigation I know I have to use on wrapper scripts which does it.
But it is not working either for me.

Please help!

Thanks,
Vijay

I tried my hands on, but I am afraid that we can not set environment variable using ant.

Hi Harshavardhan,

Thanks for the reply and trying it.

After googling, I came to know that we can set the environment variable using a wrapper shell script.
But I need an working example if anybody has here. As I also tried, but no luck.

Thanks,
Vijay

What have you tried already?

This is what I tried,

mybuild.xml:

<project name="Sample">
<target name="test">
<exec executable="/bin/bash">
<arg line="./sample.sh bar"/>

</exec>
</target>
</project>

sample.sh:

#!/bin/bash
export foo=bar

$ ant -f mybuild.xml test

test:

BUILD SUCCESSFUL
Total time: 0 seconds

$ echo $foo

$

But the environment variable foo didn't set

It did get set, but only in the shell launched by Ant. Once that shell exited, the value disappeared. I think that even is you ran "sh sample.sh" that foo would not be set in your shell, you would have to do something like ". sample.sh" which causes the script to be run in your current shell.

But rather that trying to do something that is impossible, why don't you tell us why your real requirements are, we might be able to provide some suggestions. Being able to set an env var via Ant is a proposed technical solution to a problem, it is not a requirement. Tell us what the problem is.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for replying.

I agree with you that the env var foo will not set in the current shell.
But how to set in the current shell? is there any way to do it by ant?
Yes, ". sample.sh" or "source sample.sh" will set the env var foo to bar.
How to do it using ant (build.xml) ?

The requirement is:
If ant runs the target new_target, should set the env var foo to bar.
$ ant new_target

You cannot do it using Ant, it is not possible.

Can you do something like

And read it in your build.xml like this

Thank you for the reply Peter.

Hi Sujay,

Thank you for the reply.

I want to set the env variable only through the target but not with command line argument.

Thanks,
Vijay