exec-path-from-shell

A GNU Emacs library to setup environment variables from the user's shell.

Motivation

On OS X, an Emacs instance started from the graphical user interface will have a different environment than a shell in a terminal window, because OS X does not run a shell during the login. Obviously this will lead to unexpected results when calling external utilities like make from Emacs.

This library works around this problem by copying important environment variables from the user's shell.

Installation

ELPA packages are available on Marmalade and MELPA. Alternatively, download the latest release or clone the repository, and install exec-path-from-shell.el with M-x package-install-from-file.

Usage

Add the following to your init.el:

(when (memq window-system '(mac ns))
  (exec-path-from-shell-initialize))

This sets $MANPATH, $PATH and exec-path from your shell, but only on OS X.

You can copy values of other environment variables by customizing exec-path-from-shell-variables before invoking exec-path-from-shell-initialize, or by calling exec-path-from-shell-copy-env, e.g.:

(exec-path-from-shell-copy-env "PYTHONPATH")

This function may also be called interactively.

Further help

• C-h f exec-path-from-shell-initialize
• C-h f exec-path-from-shell-copy-env

License

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.