invalid environment assignment systemd

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setting environment variables from command line inside unit files

I am trying to set a date inside the unit file for logging

my unit file look like this:

Setting the date does not seam to be working. The error I get is the following:

Any idea how to configure it for it to work?

• environment-variables

• 1 See also unix.stackexchange.com/questions/323914/… –  rogerdpack Commented May 23, 2019 at 16:06

Commands in ExecStart= in systemd service units do not really run on a shell, so shell expansions (such as the command substitution $(...) you use there) are not really available.

You can use them by calling a shell script explicitly, with /bin/sh -c '...' , in your ExecStartPre= . For example:

Note that you need to escape the $ itself, by using $$ , otherwise systemd will try to interpret as a systemd variable expansion. (Actually, as the next character is ( , a single $ might work there, but doubling it is the more correct setup.)

Please note that using systemctl set-environment like you're doing is really not recommended, since you're creating a global environment variable ${date} that will be available everywhere.

Instead, consider running your ExecStart= command through a shell, in which case you can define a shell variable ${date} and just use it in the single place you need it:

Note again, escaping the $ with $${date} , so systemd doesn't think it's a systemd variable to expand. Also, using exec to ensure the shell is replaced with the java process, making sure systemd will know what the main PID of the service is.

Escaping on systemd ExecStart= can become complex and burdensome quite quickly... So consider instead storing the shell script in a file (in which case you don't need to worry about escaping $ and % and about how the quotes might work slightly differently) and just run that script from the ExecStart= , that's a lot simpler (even though it requires an extra file...)

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systemctl .service can't read the environment variable

I'm using django and now trying to configure server with nginx and uwsi. now i'm running nginx+socket+uwsgi_emperor well . for running uwsgi i use below command in terminal:

and it's working great. now i want add service with systemctl {start|stop|restart|status} uwsgi.service so i can easily use uwsgi. the problem here occur.here is /etc/systemd/system/uwsgi.service:

now when i start it with systemctl start uwsgi.service its running and i can see systemctl status uwsgi.service thaat is loaded well but when i want access the ip the error appear in journalctl -b -u uwsgi that shown my django can't access(read) the environment variable.because i using several environment variable in django's setting so without value of them django can't work correctly.why this happen?(when i running uwsgi in command line all is good but when i want use same command in systemctl django can't read environment variable and error occur ). thank you

• environment-variables

2 Answers 2

that shown my django can't access(read) the environment variable

Because systemd is not running in a shell with your user and that user environment and those variables.

when i running uwsgi in command line

then you are using your own user with that environment and those variables.

before your ExecStart . Or if it is not that many you can also do

(one line per variable) where

• {VAR} is the name of your environment variable
• {VALUE} is the value of that {VAR}

One other approach in addition to the accepted answer is to have this /bin/bash -lc '<your command>' for your ExecStart or ExecStop

and have a corresponding /etc/profile file with the environment variables.

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How do I use environment variables from file in systemd

I set environment variables in some file /etc/profile.d/mercure.sh like this :

I need them for running following command (for mercure hub ):

I want to create a mercure.service file for running mercure as service as explained here

At start, I got these errors :

I don't really understand how I can use environment variables in my ExecStart line, can somebody explain or show me an example?

• environment-variables

• try using EnvironmentFile with static values (you'll have to rebuild file if key change of course), if dynamic are mandatory, use a wrapper, that will 1) compute keys 2) run mercure run --config ... –  Archemar Commented Jan 3 at 19:17
• 1 I think this might be what you want: unix.stackexchange.com/a/675539/272848 –  Stewart Commented Jan 5 at 14:39
• @Stewart thank you for link, i wrote an answer lower how i fix it :) –  Astro-Otter Commented Jan 5 at 15:40

2 Answers 2

Try a simpler environment file, without export . It is not required.

Try also ExecStart /bin/bash -c "...." if you want to use some variables like $MERCURE_PUBLISHER_JWT_KEY

• Ho, i just need to add variables in /etc/environment ? –  Astro-Otter Commented Jan 3 at 15:40
• 1 @Astro-Otter: /etc/environment , just like the file given in the EnvironmentFile= directive, is not a shell script. It is a simple list of assignments of the form variable=value. No export , no process substitution, no nothing. Just simple variable=value statements. If you want to run a shell script, run it in ExecStart= . –  AlexP Commented Jan 3 at 23:11

Helped with answers of @frédéric-loyer and @AlexP, i set environment variables in /etc/environment and edit my mercure.service file :

It seems to be OK :

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how to add tomcat to tomcat.service for systemctl startup

I want to write a systemctl deamon for my tomcat installation so I can start tomcat using below command

systemctl start tomcat .

Right now I am using the startup.sh script to start the Tomcat server. How do I get it managed by systemctl?

• systemctl enable tomcat , should change your system so that tomcat should start after every reboot. –  Luuk Commented Jul 2, 2023 at 14:08

2 Answers 2

Create a template service unit file at /etc/systemd/system/ [email protected] :

• For some reason, if I don't use "" around Environment settings like this example, I get a systemd warning Invalid environment assignment, ignoring: -Xmx4096M and so on. –  Rafs Commented Jul 23 at 10:33

To start up your Tomcat installation using systemctl, you'll need to create a systemd service unit file for Tomcat. Here's how you can do it:

Create a systemd Service Unit File:

Open a terminal and navigate to the systemd service directory: cd /etc/systemd/system Create a new service unit file for Tomcat. You can name it tomcat.service: sudo nano tomcat.service Add the following content to the tomcat.service file:

Adjust the Environment variables and paths (CATALINA_PID, CATALINA_HOME, CATALINA_BASE) according to your Tomcat installation directory.

Reload systemd Manager Configuration:

After creating the service unit file, you need to reload the systemd manager configuration to make systemd aware of the new service: sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable the Service:

Enable the Tomcat service to start automatically on system boot: sudo systemctl enable tomcat

Start the Service:

You can now start the Tomcat service using systemctl: sudo systemctl start tomcat

Check Status:

You can check the status of the Tomcat service to ensure it's running: sudo systemctl status tomcat

With these steps, you should be able to start up your Tomcat installation using systemctl just like any other systemd-managed service. I am curious if you have find solution, my friend gave this answer who is a website designer in perth .He asked me was it beneficial and I wasn't have any clue

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How to load environment variables for the process of a systemd service?

i am developing some services scripts that need to be executed on boot on Raspbian (Jessie) and i decided to use systemd. I just started to read some quick tutorials on how to use it, but I have problems with the environment.

The processes that are executed require (in their code) some environment variables that i set in a shell script but they aren't loaded, despite the use of an EnvironmentFile=/path/to/my/file... I have a service executing a Python3 script and another for a Node.js app.

I have been searching for alternative solutions since yesterday, but nothing seems to work... Maybe I just didn't understand how systemd works ? It must be possible to do so, so i am asking you...

Here are my unit files:

For the python script:

The node app:

Thank you for taking your time and sorry for my bad english !

PS: Please let me know if you need more informations

• environment-variables

• Just in case check out immortal –  nbari Commented Oct 4, 2017 at 12:13
• Actually, DarkKnight's answer helped me to understand what I missed. Thank you anyway for the suggestion, I will take a look and see if its features could be useful ! –  zovakk Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 10:12

Environment can be set in systemd service file as below under Exec options

Below is the official documentation of systemd Environment/EnvironmentFile usage

Environment=

Sets environment variables for executed processes. Takes a space-separated list of variable assignments. This option may be specified more than once, in which case all listed variables will be set. If the same variable is set twice, the later setting will override the earlier setting. If the empty string is assigned to this option, the list of environment variables is reset, all prior assignments have no effect. Variable expansion is not performed inside the strings, however, specifier expansion is possible. The $ character has no special meaning. If you need to assign a value containing spaces or the equals sign to a variable, use double quotes (") for the assignment.

Environment="VAR1=word1 word2" VAR2=word3 "VAR3=$word 5 6" gives three variables "VAR1", "VAR2", "VAR3" with the values "word1 word2", "word3", "$word 5 6".

See environ(7) for details about environment variables.

EnvironmentFile=

Similar to Environment= but reads the environment variables from a text file. The text file should contain new-line-separated variable assignments. Empty lines, lines without an "=" separator, or lines starting with ; or # will be ignored, which may be used for commenting. A line ending with a backslash will be concatenated with the following one, allowing multiline variable definitions. The parser strips leading and trailing whitespace from the values of assignments, unless you use double quotes (").

The argument passed should be an absolute filename or wildcard expression, optionally prefixed with "-", which indicates that if the file does not exist, it will not be read and no error or warning message is logged. This option may be specified more than once in which case all specified files are read. If the empty string is assigned to this option, the list of file to read is reset, all prior assignments have no effect.

The files listed with this directive will be read shortly before the process is executed (more specifically, after all processes from a previous unit state terminated. This means you can generate these files in one unit state, and read it with this option in the next).

Settings from these files override settings made with Environment=. If the same variable is set twice from these files, the files will be read in the order they are specified and the later setting will override the earlier setting.

Read more here

• 1 Thank you, I actually red this, but maybe a little too fast haha ! I thought the environment file must be a bash script file exporting variables... I made it work by correcting the syntax –  zovakk Commented Oct 5, 2017 at 10:09
• 2 I'm actually still looking for a way to get environment variables from a standard shell script for a few systemd services. –  Pierre Commented Mar 27, 2023 at 11:46

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environment.d - Definition of user service environment

~/.config/environment.d/*.conf

/etc/environment.d/*.conf

/run/environment.d/*.conf

/usr/lib/environment.d/*.conf

/etc/environment

DESCRIPTION ¶

Configuration files in the environment.d/ directories contain lists of environment variable assignments for services started by the systemd user instance. systemd-environment-d-generator(8) parses them and updates the environment exported by the systemd user instance. See below for an discussion of which processes inherit those variables.

It is recommended to use numerical prefixes for file names to simplify ordering.

For backwards compatibility, a symlink to /etc/environment is installed, so this file is also parsed.

CONFIGURATION DIRECTORIES AND PRECEDENCE ¶

Configuration files are read from directories in /etc/, /run/, /usr/local/lib/, and /lib/, in order of precedence, as listed in the SYNOPSIS section above. Files must have the ".conf" extension. Files in /etc/ override files with the same name in /run/, /usr/local/lib/, and /lib/. Files in /run/ override files with the same name under /usr/.

All configuration files are sorted by their filename in lexicographic order, regardless of which of the directories they reside in. If multiple files specify the same option, the entry in the file with the lexicographically latest name will take precedence. Thus, the configuration in a certain file may either be replaced completely (by placing a file with the same name in a directory with higher priority), or individual settings might be changed (by specifying additional settings in a file with a different name that is ordered later).

Packages should install their configuration files in /usr/lib/ (distribution packages) or /usr/local/lib/ (local installs). Files in /etc/ are reserved for the local administrator, who may use this logic to override the configuration files installed by vendor packages. It is recommended to prefix all filenames with a two-digit number and a dash, to simplify the ordering of the files.

If the administrator wants to disable a configuration file supplied by the vendor, the recommended way is to place a symlink to /dev/null in the configuration directory in /etc/, with the same filename as the vendor configuration file. If the vendor configuration file is included in the initrd image, the image has to be regenerated.

CONFIGURATION FORMAT ¶

The configuration files contain a list of " KEY = VALUE " environment variable assignments, separated by newlines. The right hand side of these assignments may reference previously defined environment variables, using the "${OTHER_KEY}" and "$OTHER_KEY" format. It is also possible to use "${ FOO :- DEFAULT_VALUE }" to expand in the same way as "${ FOO }" unless the expansion would be empty, in which case it expands to DEFAULT_VALUE , and use "${ FOO :+ ALTERNATE_VALUE }" to expand to ALTERNATE_VALUE as long as "${ FOO }" would have expanded to a non-empty value. No other elements of shell syntax are supported.

Each KEY must be a valid variable name. Empty lines and lines beginning with the comment character "#" are ignored.

Example 1. Setup environment to allow access to a program installed in /opt/foo

/etc/environment.d/60-foo.conf:

APPLICABILITY ¶

Environment variables exported by the user manager ( systemd --user instance started in the user@ uid .service system service) apply to any services started by that manager. In particular, this may include services which run user shells. For example in the GNOME environment, the graphical terminal emulator runs as the gnome-terminal-server.service user unit, which in turn runs the user shell, so that shell will inherit environment variables exported by the user manager. For other instances of the shell, not launched by the user manager, the environment they inherit is defined by the program that starts them. Hint: in general, systemd.service(5) units contain programs launched by systemd, and systemd.scope(5) units contain programs launched by something else.

Specifically, for ssh logins, the sshd(8) service builds an environment that is a combination of variables forwarded from the remote system and defined by sshd , see the discussion in ssh(1) . A graphical display session will have an analogous mechanism to define the environment. Note that some managers query the systemd user instance for the exported environment and inject this configuration into programs they start, using systemctl show-environment or the underlying D-Bus call.

systemd(1) , systemd-environment-d-generator(8) , systemd.environment-generator(7)

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