Environment variables

[spaceman]

I am running software (apple shake) that requires some environment variables to be set if it is to be used in a networked environment. I can go on to each machine and edit /etc/profile to export the necessary variables, and that works fine. Basically, they need to be available whether or not a user is logged in, as many of the machines run as servers only and never have anybody logged in on them.

eg.
export NR_ICON_PATH=”/Media/Shake/nreal/icons”

Is there any way for me to set these types of variables in the OD server, similarly to the way I manage software update or screensavers? As I add machines to my network, the machine-by-machine method becomes quite tedious and error-prone, and if an os update ever overwrites my /etc/profile, well, that’s not good.

Cheers,
Martin

[matx]

Putting all your settings in /etc/profile is best way to go, as far as I know.

It works well for shake environment variables, defining unix binary paths, aliases and umask settings.

Using ARD to manage the /etc/profile file is quick and easy.

While explicitly setting Shake environment variables in /etc/profile seems onerous, the idea of using this local file is usually to tell Shake to use a network path for its include folder, etc. For example:

export NR_INCLUDE_PATH=”/Volumes/XSAN/Stuff/Misc/Shake/nreal/include/”
export NR_ICON_PATH=”/Volumes/XSAN/Stuff/Misc/Shake/nreal/icons/”
export NR_FONT_PATH=”/Volumes/XSAN/Stuff/Misc/Shake/nreal/fonts/”

The other option to have users launch Shake, in this case, from a custom script which defines the environment variables for you. I have used this method to define separate Shake instances. For example, “shakehd” would be a script/icon/app to launch Shake with HD settings, or “shake2k” would have 2K settings.

You’d still need to distribute this custom script or app to all your client machines, but it beats copying a custom nreal folder to each user profile.

Perhaps your other alternative is to netboot.

Good luck.

Mat X
macvfx AT mac com

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