# Declaration of an initial environment in Ignition

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/declaration-of-an-initial-environment-in-ignition/38828>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [September 18, 2020, 10:03am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/declaration-of-an-initial-environment-in-ignition/38828 "2020-09-18T10:03:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![patricia.mendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71e660/32.png) [@patricia.mendez](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/patricia.mendez)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 10:03am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/declaration-of-an-initial-environment-in-ignition/38828/1 "2020-09-18T10:03:50Z")

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Dear Supporters,

is there a way to define an environment variable, in particular LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH to ensure it is taken by the Ignition gateway at start time?. I did it by adding to ignition.sh the name of a file including just the setting of the variable:

# List of files to source prior to executing any commands. Use ‘;’ as delimiter.

# For example:

# FILES\_TO\_SOURCE="/home/user/.bashrc;anotherfile;…/file3"

The file I create includes a specific LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH value, however, it apparently is not recognized, because through an script running in the gateway  
print (os.environ[‘LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH’]) reports that this variable is not defined.

Thanks in advance,  
Patricia

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**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/declaration-of-an-initial-environment-in-ignition/38828/2 "2020-09-18T12:41:25Z")

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The wrapper that actually launches Ignition is a proprietary executable. You’d have to research what it allows. If this is related to getting some sort of python-related ‘C’ lib to run in Ignition, you are wasting your time. Java won’t be able to call anything loaded that way.

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**Author:** ![Kevin.Herron](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/kevin.herron/32/7259_2.png) [@Kevin.Herron](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Kevin.Herron)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/declaration-of-an-initial-environment-in-ignition/38828/3 "2020-09-18T12:47:26Z")

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See if this works: [https://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com/doc/english/props-envvars.html#definition](https://wrapper.tanukisoftware.com/doc/english/props-envvars.html#definition)