In git bash (on windows) how can I set an environment variable with special characters in the key? Like some.var:.
The following does not work: export "some.var:"=123
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You really should have included why you need to do this since it smells like an XY Problem.Kurtis Rader– Kurtis Rader2021-07-15 01:54:36 +00:00Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 1:54
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well TBH it's something we've been using for years in production apps, which suddenly broke and I needed to test it - so it seems like discussing the reasoning for it would be a waste at this point.joniba– joniba2021-07-15 15:40:31 +00:00Commented Jul 15, 2021 at 15:40
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1 Answer 1
export requires a valid bash identifier, so it can only define a subset of legal environment strings.
If you have a program that requires a name that is not a valid identifier, you'll need to use an external program to create the necessary environment. For example:
$ env -i "some.var:=123" env
some.var:=123
env by itself reports its inherited environment. With a command, it runs that command in a possibly modified environment. -i clears the initial environment (so that we aren't flooded with irrelevant environment string; in practice, you can omit it if you want to inherit the current environment as well), and the string defines a name some.var: to have the value 123).
joniba
thanks, this works, but is there a way to persist this variable so I don't need to redefine it before every command?
chepner
Unfortunately, no; the shell itself has no way of creating environment variables other than exporting ordinary shell variables. You would need to start your shell using this technique, inheriting the value from the parent rather then setting them via your shell configuration files.
chepner
In practice, you could define a wrapper around the command you want to run, something like
my_cmd () { env "some.var:=123" my_cmd; }. (No recursion here, as env will be looking for a command in your path, not a shell function of the same name.)lang-bash