EnvPane - An OS X preference pane for environment variables

Submitted by Hannes Schmidt on Thu, 01/03/2013 - 00:52.

News: Release 0.7 is built for macOS 12 "Monterey" and up. It uses code-signed, universal binaries.

EnvPane is a preference pane for macOS that lets you set environment variables for all applications, both GUI and terminal. Not only does it restore support for ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist (seeBackground), it also publishes your changes to the environment immediately, without the need to log out and back in. This works for changes made by manually editing ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist as well via the preference pane UI.

EnvPane 0.7 was tested under macOS 12 "Monterey" on Apple Silicon and Intel.

For more information & downloads head on over to the GitHub repository.

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( categories: Mac OS X )
I think it stopped working
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 05/18/2016 - 12:37.
Seems like it stopped working after a recent OS update, anyone else having this problem? Yosemite 10.10.5
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Thanks
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 12/24/2015 - 11:40.
This is really nice. I wish it was just a feature of OSX. Great job!..
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launchctl export
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/04/2015 - 12:52.
FYI - the export subcommand of launchctl is not available in OS X 10.10 Yosemite
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Re: Variable evaluation in definitions?
Submitted by Hannes Schmidt on Fri, 03/21/2014 - 18:21.
Sorry, this currently not supported. It would be possible by having EnvPane's agent perform substitutions similar to that of a shell but that would require additional coding work. Also note that at the time the agent is run, PATH has a well-known standard value set by launchd so there is not much utility in trying to factor that out. -- Hannes
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Variable evaluation in definitions?
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 01/31/2014 - 08:56.
Is it possible to define variables using evaluations of other variables, i.e. similar to bash:
  • FOO=/usr/local/foo
  • BAR=$FOO/bar
? I'm primarily interested in extending existing definitions, e.g. PATH.
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Re: Insists I installed it for all user?
Submitted by Hannes Schmidt on Sun, 09/01/2013 - 16:24.
It could be that it's installed both for all users and for current user. Try uninstalling it (may have to do it twice) and then reinstalling it. To uninstall a preference pane you right click it and select "Remove ...", but you probably know that already. Also, before reinstalling, check ~/Library/PreferencePanes, /Library/PreferencePanes and /System/Library/PreferencePanes for any remnants of EnvPane. If None of that works, file a bug on with as much info as possible (logs, directory listings, ...).
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Insists I installed it for all user?
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 08/27/2013 - 12:25.
I installed the prefPane for current user only but after clicking at it in System Preferences, it warns that it's installed for all users and refuses to run. I double checked and the file is in ~/Library/PreferencePanes. Any idea why? This is on a 10.8.3 iMac. Thanks.
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Environment variable on mountain lion
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/18/2013 - 08:33.
It does work. It is easy. It is very generous of you. That was a time saver. Thanks Hannes !
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Very nice
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 03/04/2013 - 15:15.
Thank you. Nice work and much appreciated.
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OMG THANK YOU!
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/27/2013 - 18:33.
I was pulling my hair out trying to get the necessary environment variable set for use with a third party GUI application under OSX Mountain Lion (10.8.2). After spending half a day tracking down the intricacies and differences of Mountain Lion vs. earlier versions, I thought I could cobble together an ugly solution. EnvPane saves me from having to do that, and has a much more intuitive interface. Thanks for releasing this! - Greg Marquez
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