Skip to content

How to set environment variables in bash and zsh

The operation is the same on both Bash and zsh, with the caveat that to persist them you need to use .bashrc and .zshrc, respectively.

Setting them in the shell is the same:

$ export VARIABLE=something

To make sure it was set, type

$ $VARIABLE

If you edit a dot file, to apply the changes to the current shell use source .dotfile.

This works for Bash and Zsh.

With Fish you prepend env:

env API_KEY=123123 node app.js

→ I wrote 17 books to help you become a better developer:

  • C Handbook
  • Command Line Handbook
  • CSS Handbook
  • Express Handbook
  • Git Cheat Sheet
  • Go Handbook
  • HTML Handbook
  • JS Handbook
  • Laravel Handbook
  • Next.js Handbook
  • Node.js Handbook
  • PHP Handbook
  • Python Handbook
  • React Handbook
  • SQL Handbook
  • Svelte Handbook
  • Swift Handbook
...download them all now!

Also, JOIN MY CODING BOOTCAMP, an amazing cohort course that will be a huge step up in your coding career - covering React, Next.js - next edition February 2025

Bootcamp 2025

Join the waiting list