.bashrc/.bash_profile not loading export

Question

I'm trying to compile code and in order to get it to work I need to run the following line before compilation:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

After this the code compiles normally, I'm trying to add this so that I do not need to run this line each time when I restart my PC. I've tried adding that line to the .bashrc file (does the file path needs quotes?) which has not seemed to work. I have also tried creating a .bash_profile file an adding the line in there but again this does not seem to work.

Whenever I try to compile after adding the .bash_profile I am getting the following error:

./makeScript: line 1: pkg-config: command not found

Answer 1

It should work if you added it into ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile.

If this won't work, make sure your script actually uses bash shell (shebang), as if you're using different shell, possibly it won't be loaded.

However I think your problem is not related to PKG_CONFIG_PATH, but PATH variable which doesn't contain the right directory where pkg-config executable binary is present.

Check by:

$ which pkg-config
/usr/local/bin/pkg-config

If you can't find it, make sure you've installed it and linked it, e.g. using Homebrew:

brew install pkg-config; brew link pkg-config

And your /usr/local/bin is in your PATH, e.g.

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

---

As a side note, you can check your export variables by running set command just before the link which fails.

Another thing to track the problem is to debug your scripts by running like: bash -x ./makeScript or adding -x at the end of your shebang (e.g. #!/bin/bash -x).

Answer 2

Take ~/.profile:

$ cat >> ~/.profile << EOF
> PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig
> EOF

Load changes (if you do not want to reboot):

$ source ~/.profile

Test:

$ echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH
/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig