$PATH environment variable for apache2 on mac

Question

I am trying to get apache/php to recognize the path to my git. I have been researching and looking in all corners of the web and cannot find how to do this. Basically, no matter what I try, when I run echo phpinfo(); the Apache Environment path does not change from /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin. And when I run system('echo $PATH'); in PHP, it reads the same.

System Information:

Mac OSX (Lion)
Apache 2 (running as _www)
PHP 5.3.6

Here is what I have tried editing so far:

/etc/profile
~/.bash_profile
~/.profile
/etc/path
/etc/path.d/{NEW_FILE}

Nothing I have tried so far has changed the $PATH variable. Any ideas?

SOLUTION

So here is the final solution. I edited the

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

and added

<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
<dict>
    <key>PATH</key>
    <string>/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/git/bin</string>
</dict>

[Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8)? (Seriously, though, have you restarted Apache since doing this?) — cwallenpoole, Jul 26 '11 at 17:22
I was having problems running PHP ``exec()`` where the Apache shell had a different PATH than my Mac shell. This solved my issue. — swt83, Jan 21 '14 at 17:21
I had a similar problem with PHP using the Imagick module. It wouldn't open a PDF file because (under the hood) Imagick uses Ghostscript's `gs` binary, which was on my system but not in Apache's $PATH. Adding the above to the .plist file and restarting apache solved it. — Andrew McCombe, Oct 28 '15 at 23:03
This worked for me. However, for some reason after I installed Sierra, my edits to org.apache.httpd.plist disappeared. I put them back in and restarted Apache to get it to work again. — ScottyB, Jan 02 '17 at 13:38

Monolo · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-14T11:59:51.423

33

You can set the PATH environment variable in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist.

More in the docs.

edited Nov 14 '16 at 11:59

answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:26

Monolo

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Yeah, I read another question on here about this. I tried this too. And it didn't work. I got apache errors with this. – Chuck Burgess Jul 26 '11 at 17:36
I just retried this and it worked. Not sure why it didn't before. But this seems to be the solution. – Chuck Burgess Jul 26 '11 at 17:40
2

TBH, I don't know if it works the same on OS X, but on "normal" *nixes, a restart command to the apache process does not relaunch the process, hence it does not get an updated environment (what it does do is that it re-reads its conf file(s)). Maybe something similar is at play here. – Monolo Jul 26 '11 at 17:42
2

BTW, I used `sudo apachectl restart` and it loads the new PATH settings from `org.apache.https.plist` just fine in this case. – Chuck Burgess Jul 26 '11 at 17:50
Interesting - thanks for that info. I now wonder if was talking rubbish in the comment above... – Monolo Jul 26 '11 at 17:56

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

4

Did you update the PATH environment variable of user '_www'? Apache will read environment variables from the user runs itself. Or, it looks like you didn't restart apache after updating PATH environment variable.

Check out the older discussion :
- How do I add paths to the Apache PATH variable?
- Setting environment variables in OS X?

And if you want to modify environment variable in PHP, getenv() and putenv() can be a better choice.

getenv : http://php.net/manual/en/function.getenv.php
putenv : http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.putenv.php

$path = getenv('PATH'); putenv( "PATH=$path:/new_path_that_you_want_to_add" );

edited May 23 '17 at 12:31

Community

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answered Jul 26 '11 at 17:31

lqez

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The `putenv()` is only a good solution if you modify your PHP code directly. It's not a good permanent solution if you have to add that to EVERY php script / app you write. – Chuck Burgess Jul 26 '11 at 18:40
2

how to edit the PATH var for the _www users that doesnt exist in /users ? – Arnold Roa Oct 01 '14 at 19:59

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 19 '16 at 07:46

Important note for El Capitan (Apologies for the new answer - I don't have enough Rep to comment)

On OSX 10.11, the /System/Library folder is protected, so the files can't be edited.

You need to:

Reboot into Recovery Mode (hold CMD + r after the startup sound)
Once in recovery mode, go to Utilities > Terminal
Run: csrutil disable
Reboot back into OSX - you should now be able to change the files
Once done, go back to recovery mode and run csrutil enable

Hope that helps

Ray Hunter · Answer 4 · 2015-07-16T05:20:11.583

1

I created this gist that helped me out from the information above:

https://gist.github.com/srayhunter/5208619

My problem was that PHP was not finding a program that we had installed under /usr/local/bin. Once we did the above it all worked and played nice on mac osx.

edited Jul 16 '15 at 05:20

answered Mar 20 '13 at 21:58

Ray Hunter

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 28 '13 at 10:56

A similar problem to what I was having installing Derby. The way I solved it was by opening TextEdit. Select File > Open at this point press Shift + Command + . , this will allow you to view all the documents. Head to the user directory and search for a file called ".profile" . Open it and add the export VARIABLE= Value line for example:

export DERBY_HOME=/opt/local/share/java/derby/

Save the document and restart your terminal to see if the changes went into affect.

diyism · Answer 6 · 2012-01-31T04:46:28.903

0

for ubuntu server, in /etc/apache2/envvars, for centos server, in /etc/sysconfig/httpd, to add:

export PATH=<your php cli path>

and restart apache

edited Jan 31 '12 at 04:46

answered Jan 31 '12 at 03:54

diyism

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$PATH environment variable for apache2 on mac

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