How can an application receive system environment variables, even when launched from a Favorites icon?

Question

When I launch IntelliJ from my Favorite icon and then launch a Maven Run Configuration, system environment variables (those exported in ~/.bashrc) are not recognized inside IntelliJ. If I run the same idea.sh that is run from the Favorites icon, then they are defined.

Question on Stack Overflow, but this issue is more about Ubuntu passing of environment than IntelliJ specifics.
Question on Ask Ubuntu about Eclipse, but that recommends a shell script, which is already the case here.

Contents of the desktop file:

    [Desktop Entry]
    Version=1.0
    Type=Application
    Name=IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition
    Icon=/hdd/executables/idea-IU-191.6707.61/bin/idea.svg
    Exec="/hdd/executables/idea-IU-191.6707.61/bin/idea.sh" %f
    Comment=Capable and Ergonomic IDE for JVM
    Categories=Development;IDE;
    Terminal=false
    StartupWMClass=jetbrains-idea

Related: [Set variable in .desktop file](https://askubuntu.com/questions/144968/set-variable-in-desktop-file) and [.desktop file with .bashrc environment](https://askubuntu.com/questions/542152/desktop-file-with-bashrc-environment) (FWIW I don't recommend the accepted answer in the second case) — steeldriver, May 21 '19 at 14:23
Thank you. The first link is about 'manually' setting the env variables; I want them to come from the system. The second link looks relevant. What answer do you recommend if not the accepted answer? — Joshua Fox, May 21 '19 at 19:27

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 21 '19 at 14:15

2

Set the variables in ~/.profile instead of ~/.bashrc.

You may want to study the page EnvironmentVariables for explanations.

answered May 21 '19 at 14:15

Gunnar Hjalmarsson

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I moved the code setting these variables from `.bashrc` to `.profile`. I logged out and in; and confirmed with `env` that the values where there. But still, the values do not appear in Intellij – Joshua Fox May 21 '19 at 20:16
@JoshuaFox: That's a bit odd. Possibly a reboot is needed for the desktop environment you are using. – Gunnar Hjalmarsson May 21 '19 at 20:36
@JoshuaFox: Btw, are you running Wayland? – Gunnar Hjalmarsson May 21 '19 at 20:38
`echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE` gives `x11`, so, apparently not Wayland. This is a recently installed Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS – Joshua Fox May 22 '19 at 06:22

How can an application receive system environment variables, even when launched from a Favorites icon?

1 Answers1