Bruno is right on track. I've done extensive research and if you want to set variables that are available in all GUI applications, your only option is /etc/launchd.conf.

Please note that environment.plist does not work for applications launched via Spotlight. This is documented by Steve Sexton here.

1. Open a terminal prompt

2. Type sudo vi /etc/launchd.conf (note: this file might not yet exist)

3. Put contents like the following into the file

   # Set environment variables here so they are available globally to all apps
   # (and Terminal), including those launched via Spotlight.
   #
   # After editing this file run the following command from the terminal to update
   # environment variables globally without needing to reboot.
   # NOTE: You will still need to restart the relevant application (including
   # Terminal) to pick up the changes!
   # grep -E "^setenv" /etc/launchd.conf | xargs -t -L 1 launchctl
   #
   # See http://www.digitaledgesw.com/node/31
   # and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/135688/setting-environment-variables-in-os-x/
   #
   # Note that you must hardcode the paths below, don't use environment variables.
   # You also need to surround multiple values in quotes, see MAVEN_OPTS example below.
   #
   setenv JAVA_VERSION 1.6
   setenv JAVA_HOME /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home
   setenv GROOVY_HOME /Applications/Dev/groovy
   setenv GRAILS_HOME /Applications/Dev/grails
   setenv NEXUS_HOME /Applications/Dev/nexus/nexus-webapp
   setenv JRUBY_HOME /Applications/Dev/jruby
   
   setenv ANT_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-ant
   setenv ANT_OPTS -Xmx512M
   
   setenv MAVEN_OPTS "-Xmx1024M -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"
   setenv M2_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-maven
   
   setenv JMETER_HOME /Applications/Dev/jakarta-jmeter
   

4. Save your changes in vi and reboot your Mac. Or use the grep/xargs command which is shown in the code comment above.

5. Prove that your variables are working by opening a Terminal window and typing export and you should see your new variables. These will also be available in IntelliJ IDEA and other GUI applications you launch via Spotlight.

Up to and including OS X v10.7 (Lion) you can set them in:

~/.MacOSX/environment.plist

See:

• https://developer.apple.com/legacy/library/qa/qa1067/_index.html
• https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPRuntimeConfig/Articles/EnvironmentVars.html

For PATH in the Terminal, you should be able to set in .bash_profile or .profile (you'll probably have to create it though)

For OS X v10.8 (Mountain Lion) and beyond you need to use launchd and launchctl.

Sometimes all of the previous answers simply don't work. If you want to have access to a system variable (like M2_HOME) in Eclipse or in IntelliJ IDEA the only thing that works for me in this case is:

First (step 1) edit /etc/launchd.conf to contain a line like this: "setenv VAR value" and then (step 2) reboot.

Simply modifying .bash_profile won't work because in OS X the applications are not started as in other Unix'es; they don't inherit the parent's shell variables. All the other modifications won't work for a reason that is unknown to me. Maybe someone else can clarify about this.

Any of the Bash startup files -- ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.profile. There's also some sort of weird file named ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist for environment variables in GUI applications.

/etc/launchd.conf is not used in OS X v10.10 (Yosemite), OS X v10.11 (El Capitan), macOS v10.12 (Sierra), or macOS v10.13 (High Sierra).

From the launchctl man page:

/etc/launchd.conf file is no longer consulted for subcommands to run during early boot time;
this functionality was removed for security considerations.

The method described in this Ask Different answer works for me (after a reboot): applications launched from the Dock or from Spotlight inherit environment variables that I set in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/my.startup.plist. (In my case, I needed to set LANG, to en_US.UTF-8, for a Sublime Text plugin.)

The $PATH variable is also subject to path_helper, which in turn makes use of the /etc/paths file and files in /etc/paths.d.

A more thorough description can be found in PATH and other environment issues in Leopard (2008-11)

All the magic on iOS only goes with using source with the file, where you export your environment variables.

For example:

You can create an file like this:

export bim=fooo
export bom=bar

Save this file as bimbom.env, and do source ./bimbom.ev. Voilá, you got your environment variables.

Check them with:

echo $bim

Feb 2022 (MacOs 12+)

Solutions here should work after reboot or application restart.

CLI

Open your CLI of choice config file.

• For bash open ~/.bash_profile
• For zsh open ~/.zshrc

add (or replace)

export varName=varValue 

(if varValue has spaces in it - wrap it in ")

Make sure to restart command line app.

GUI

Complete the CLI step. Make sure GUI app is closed. Open GUI app from the command line. For example:

open /Applications/Sourcetree.app

(you can also alias this command in the .zshrc)

Principles

• Mac does not have a configuration options that sets environment variable for all contexts.
• Avoid changing anything outside your user profile.

Doesn't work anymore

• launchctl config user varName varVal (MacOS 12.1+)
• Editing /etc/launchd.conf
• xml file with plist suffix

For a single user modification, use ~/.profile of the ones you listed. The following link explains when the different files are read by Bash.

http://telin.ugent.be/~slippens/drupal/bashrc_and_others

If you want to set the environment variable for gui applications you need the ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist file

Well, I'm unsure about the /etc/paths and ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist files. Those are new.

But with Bash, you should know that .bashrc is executed with every new shell invocation and .bash_profile is only executed once at startup.

I don't know how often this is with Mac OS X. I think the distinction has broken down with the window system launching everything.

Personally, I eliminate the confusion by creating a .bashrc file with everything I need and then do:

ln -s .bashrc .bash_profile

One thing to note in addition to the approaches suggested is that, in OS X 10.5 (Leopard) at least, the variables set in launchd.conf will be merged with the settings made in .profile. I suppose this is likely to be valid for the settings in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist too, but I haven't verified.

My personal practice is .bash_profile. I'm adding paths there and append to Path variable,

GOPATH=/usr/local/go/bin/
MYSQLPATH=/usr/local/opt/mysql@5.6/bin

PATH=$PATH:$GOPATH:$MYSQLPATH

After then I can have individual Path by echo $GOPATH, echo$MYSQLPATH or all by echo $PATH.