How to Set Environment Variables in Linux (export)

export makes a shell variable available to any programs launched from that shell, not just the shell itself.

Key points

• export API_KEY=abc123 sets the variable for the current session and any commands run from it
• Add export statements to a shell config file (~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc) to persist them across sessions
• echo $API_KEY displays the current value of a variable

Example

export NODE_ENV=production