Environment variables

Some places to look at to define/change variables, and which contents to expect.

Global

/etc/environment

global variables: HTTP(S) & SOCKS proxies, custom PATH

Session

/etc/profile

default session variables

/etc/profile.d/*.sh

extra session variables

~/.xprofile

user-defined X11 settings -mostly for lightweight session managers (i3, awesome-wm, etc.)

~/.profile

user-defined variables -superseded by ~/.bash_profile

Bash

/etc/bash.bashrc

default Bash settings

~/.bash_profile

user-defined Bash settings -mostly for X11/startup stuff

~/.bashrc

user-defined Bash configuration (main file)

~/.bash_aliases

user-defined Bash command aliases and functions

Superusers

/etc/login.defs

console & login configuration

/etc/sudoers

sudoers configuration -always use visudo to edit!

SSH

/etc/ssh/sshd_config

server-side, can allow the client to pass variables

/etc/ssh/ssh_config

client-side, can send variables to servers

SaltStack

/etc/default/salt-minion (deprecated in recent versions)

can be used to source /etc/environment -not always included in the distro’s packages

/etc/salt/minion

HTTP(S) proxy configuration