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Suppose I have a continuous process running that reads an environment variable:

export APPLE=abc123 watch echo \$APPLE

Now, is there any way to change the value that's being read during execution? I've tried suspending the process (ctrl-z), exporting a new value for the variable, then resuming (fg), but the old value is still displayed.

Is this possible? I'd prefer an answer that works with basic command-line tools and doesn't require specialized software, though requiring root privileges is OK.

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  • a more normal solution than gdb would be to poll the variable from a file or socket or such in your script Commented Nov 6, 2024 at 18:47

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I've tried suspending the process (ctrl-z), exporting a new value for the variable, then resuming (fg), but the old value is still displayed.

This does not work because environment variables are inherited when the process starts – but when you use Ctrl-z and fg it doesn't restart watch; it just pauses and unpauses the old process.

The only way to change the environment for a running process, from the outside, is to do it from inside the process with a debugging tool. For example:

$ gdb -p $(pidof watch) (gdb) p setenv("APPLE", "orange") (gdb) q Really detach? y
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  • I get this error: No symbol "setenv" in current context. On Mac Sierra Commented Dec 14, 2017 at 5:35

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