Setting new environment variable on Linux

Question

{noformat}I need to set new environment variable on my linux machine from inside my code. I am using csh and the command works fine from command line:
setenv IFConfigLocation4 /home/username/myfile.xml
But when i try the same thing from Java code it does not seem to have any effect. here is my code:
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
public class CDE_parser_methods{
public static String fileParse(String inFile, String parserName, String outFile, String CMConfig_locale)
String parsed = "SUCCESSFUL";
System.out.println("Parsing file..." + "\nParser name: " + parserName +"\nInput file name: " + inFile + "\nOutput file name: " + outFile + "\nCMConfig file is: " + CMConfig_locale);
System.out.println("Current Java version: " + System.getProperty("java.version"));
try
          String cmd[]={"/bin/csh", "-c", "setenv IFConfigLocation4 " + CMConfig_locale};
          Process proc = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd);
          int exitVal= proc.waitFor();
          System.out.println("Value of setenv command is: " + exitVal);
          String cmd2[]={"/bin/csh", "-c", "env"};
          Process proc2 = Runtime.getRuntime().exec(cmd2);
          InputStream instr = proc2.getInputStream();
          InputStreamReader inread = new InputStreamReader(instr);
          BufferedReader buf = new BufferedReader(inread);
          String line=null;
          while((line=buf.readLine()) != null)
               System.out.println(line);
          int exitVal2= proc2.waitFor();
          }catch(CMException cme){
               System.out.println("Issue when trying to executing parse command, details: " + cme.getMessage());
               System.out.println("Description of the issue is: " + cme.getDescription());
               parsed = "FAILURE: " + cme.getDescription();
          }catch(Exception e){
               System.out.println("Uncought exception, details: " + e.getMessage());
               parsed = "FAILURE: " + e.getMessage();
     return parsed;
public static void main(String[] args) {
     String results=CDE_parser_methods.fileParse("/opt/itemfield/ServiceDB/Project2/Mapping_for_Account_Number_Structure_ITS_Input_File.xls","MappingforAccountNumberStructure","/opt/itemfield/ServiceDB/Project2/test_ws_44.xml","/home/rvenishe/CMConfig.xml");
     System.out.println("Result of fileParse call is: " + results);
     }The out put of my env command does NOT contain system variable "IFConfigLocation4". Any ideas? {noformat}

Answer 1

Environment variables and their values set from within a user process has their scope and lifetime limited to the process and its subprocesses. See java.lang.ProcessBuilder class and its API documentation for setting env for a subprocess that will be started by a ProcessBuilder instance. Even in the C programming we have the same limitation for the environment.
Since they are not globally set, system command like env or Java method like System.getenv() can't see them.