Setting environment variables via launchd.conf no longer works in OS X Yosemite/El Capitan/macOS Sierra/Mojave?

Question

It looks like the launchd.conf does not load my environment variable anymore. Has anyone else noticed that?

Is there another solution to permanently set

Answer 1

It is possible to set environment variables on Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite with 3 files + 2 commands.

Main file with environment variables definition:

$ ls -la /etc/environment 
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  369 Oct 21 04:42 /etc/environment
$ cat /etc/environment
#!/bin/sh

set -e

syslog -s -l warn "Set environment variables with /etc/environment $(whoami) - start"

launchctl setenv JAVA_HOME      /usr/local/jdk1.7
launchctl setenv MAVEN_HOME     /opt/local/share/java/maven3

if [ -x /usr/libexec/path_helper ]; then
    export PATH=""
    eval `/usr/libexec/path_helper -s`
    launchctl setenv PATH $PATH
fi

osascript -e 'tell app "Dock" to quit'

syslog -s -l warn "Set environment variables with /etc/environment $(whoami) - complete"

Service definition to load environment variables for user applications (terminal, IDE, ...):

$ ls -la /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  504 Oct 21 04:37 /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
$ sudo cat /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist




    Label
    environment.user
    ProgramArguments
    
            /etc/environment
    
    KeepAlive
    
    RunAtLoad
    
    WatchPaths
    
        /etc/environment
    

The same service definition for root user applications:

$ ls -la /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist
-rw-------  1 root  wheel  499 Oct 21 04:38 /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist
$ sudo cat /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist




    Label
    environment
    ProgramArguments
    
            /etc/environment
    
    KeepAlive
    
    RunAtLoad
    
    WatchPaths
    
        /etc/environment
    

And finally we should register these services:

$ launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/environment.user.plist
$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/environment.plist

What we get:

1. The only place to declare system environment variables: /etc/environment
2. Instant auto-update of environment variables after modification of /etc/environment file - just relaunch your application

Issues / problems:

In order your env variables were correctly taken by applications after system reboot you will need:

• either login twice: login => logout => login
• or close & re-open applications manually, where env variables should be taken
• or do NOT use feature "Reopen windows when logging back".

This happens due to Apple denies explicit ordering of loaded services, so env variables are registered in parallel with processing of the "reopen queue".

But actually, I reboot my system only several times per year (on big updates), so it is not a big deal.