How to make environment variables available for Bamboo when running it as a Linux service

Summary

To simplify scripting in Bamboo we might need to have access to system variables.

Sevices try to preserve the application environment by stripping out variables other than TERM, PATH and LANG.

Solution

You will need to load the variables when calling Bamboo startup. Assuming the service was configured using Running Bamboo as a Linux service, these are the steps to solve this problem.

Using SysV script (/etc/init.d)

1. Stop the service

2. Create an external file with the variables you need (e.g. /etc/default/bamboo), please add the export command in front of them so they can be inherited.

   Sample content:

   1 2 export GEM_HOME=/home/bamboo/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0 export GEM_PATH=/home/bamboo/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0:/home/bamboo/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.0@global

3. Edit the script /etc/init.d/bamboo to load the variable at Bamboo startup. Change the following line:

   From

   1 /bin/su - $USER -c "export BAMBOO_HOME=${BAMBOO_HOME}; $BASE/bin/startup.sh &> /dev/null"

   To

   1 /bin/su - $USER -c ". /etc/default/bamboo; export BAMBOO_HOME=${BAMBOO_HOME}; $BASE/bin/startup.sh &> /dev/null"

4. Start the service again

Using systemd

1. Stop the service

2. Add the variable as an Environment or EnvironmentFile property to the service unit file. An example can be found on the Running Bamboo as a Linux service page

3. Reload the service via systemctl daemon-reload

4. Start the service