Search code examples
macosenvironment-variableslaunchd

setven in launchd.conf on mac

This is my first real development with the mac os(OS X 10.5.8).I got a macbookpro from work and i'm still setting up the right development environment.I've opted for the creation of /etc/launchd.conf and it's working fine for most of my librairies (JAVA_HOME, JRE_HOME) i now need to add CATALINA_OPTS=-Duser.timezone=Asia/china but the syntax in mac for launchd.conf doesn't appear to have equal signe "=".all i've seen are spaces ,so i'm a bit lost when i need to add things like properties file or the one for tomcat. i don't want to break anything and i'll like to be sure that i have the correct way of doing it. Could it be ?

CATALINA_OPTS -Duser.timezone=Asia/china

thanks for reading

Solution

  • The "=" sign is specific to a particular application's syntax. For example bash uses "key=value", whereas, launchctl uses a syntax similar to csh, "setenv key value".

    launchd.conf ($HOME/.launchd.conf and /etc/launchd.conf) is a script of launchctl commands.

    So in the case CATALINA_OPTS=-Duser.timezone=Asia/china, the key (often called the environment variable, env var, or just variable) is CATALINA_OPTS and the value is -Duser.timezone=Asia/china.

    I know this for a few reasons.

    • Typically, the environment variable name is all uppercase.
    • The environment variable name appears before the first equals "=" (or space " ").
    • The -D denotes the definition of a system property for Java's VM.
      • Note the key/value syntax for Java's system properties uses the "key=value" syntax.
      • Java system properties often contain a dot ".". Environment variable names don't.
      • So the key is user.timezone and the value is Asia/china.

    An aside, I'm not sure Asia/china is a valid timezone. At least not according to the list i found. But maybe it'll work since China has a single timezone.