RefrEnv - Refresh the Environment

Reload environment variables inside CMD, Bash, Powershell or Zsh every time you want environment changes to propagate, so you do not need to restart them after setting a new variable with setx or after installing a new app which adds new variables.

This is a better alternative to the Chocolatey refreshenv for cmd (and works for bash and zsh too (cygwin, Msys2 and GitBash)), which solves several problems in the chocolatey's refreshenv, like:

• The Chocolatey refreshenv act bad if the variable have some cmd meta-characters, see this test:

  add this to the path in HKCU\Environment: test & echo baaaaaaaaaad, and run the chocolatey refreshenv you will see that it prints baaaaaaaaaad which is very bad, and the new path is not added to your path variable.

  RefrEnv solves this and you can test it with any meta-character, even something so bad like:

  ; & % ' ( ) ~ + @ # $ { } [ ] , ` ! ^ | > < \ / " : ? * = . - _ & echo baaaad
  

• refreshenv adds only system and user environment variables, but CMD adds volatile variables too (HKCU\Volatile Environment). RefrEnv will merge all the three and remove any duplicates.

• refreshenv resets your PATH. RefrEnv appends the new path to the old path of the parent script which called RefrEnv. It is better than overwriting the old path, otherwise it will delete any newly added path by the parent script. (this can be changed by user choice to reset the path, see the description)

• RefrEnv solve this problem described in a comment here by @Gene Mayevsky:

  refreshenv modifies env variables TEMP and TMP replacing them with values stored in HKCU\Environment. In my case I run the script to update env variables modified by Jenkins job on a slave that's running under SYSTEM account, so TEMP and TMP get substituted by %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp instead of C:\Windows\Temp. This breaks build because linker cannot open system profile's Temp folder.

and more...

Usage:

git clone https://github.com/badrelmers/RefrEnv
cd RefrEnv

cmd

Works in all windows versions xp+

call refrenv.bat

Powershell

Works in all Powershell versions V2+

. .\refrenv.ps1

bash:

source refrenv.sh

Zsh:

source refrenvz.sh

---

Details:

Opciones for RefrEnv in CMD

NAME
   RefrEnv - Refresh the Environment for CMD

SYNOPSIS
   call refrenv.bat

DESCRIPTION
   By default with no arguments, this script will do a full 
   refresh (refresh all non critical variables*, and refresh the PATH).

   you can use the following variables to change the default behaviour:

   RefrEnv_ResetPath=yes       Reset the actual PATH inside CMD, then refresh
                               it with a new PATH. This will delete any PATH 
                               added by the script who called RefrEnv. It is 
                               equivalent to running a new CMD session.

   RefrEnv_debug=yes           Debug what this script do. The folder containing
                               the files used to set the variables will be
                               open, then see _NewEnv.sh, this is the file
                               which run inside your script to setup the new
                               variables, you can also revise the intermediate
                               .txt files.

Opciones for RefrEnv in Powershell

NAME
    RefrEnv - Refresh the Environment for Powershell/Pwsh

SYNOPSIS
    . .\refrenv.ps1
    
DESCRIPTION
    By default with no arguments, this script will do a full 
    refresh (refresh all non critical variables*, and refresh the PATH).

    you can use the following variables to change the default behaviour:
                                
    RefrEnv_ResetPath=yes       Reset the actual PATH inside Powershell, then refresh
                                it with a new PATH. This will delete any PATH 
                                added by the script who called RefrEnv. It is 
                                equivalent to running a new Powershell session.

Opciones for RefrEnv in Bash and Zsh

SYNOPSIS
    source refrenv.sh
    source refrenvz.sh

DESCRIPTION
    By default with no arguments, RefrEnv will do a full 
    refresh (refresh all non critical variables*, and refresh the PATH).

    you can use the following variables to change the default behaviour:
    
    RefrEnv_StrictRefresh=yes   Strict mode (secure refresh). this prevent refreshing a
                                variable if it is already defined in the actual bash/zsh session. 
                                The PATH will be refreshed.
                                
    RefrEnv_ResetPath=yes       Reset the actual PATH inside bash/zsh, then refresh it with a new PATH.
                                this will delete any PATH added by the script who called RefrEnv. 
                                it is equivalent to running a new bash/zsh session.

    RefrEnv_debug=yes           Debug what RefrEnv do. The folder containing the 
                                files used to set the variables will be open, then see 
                                _NewEnv.sh this is the file which run inside your script
                                to setup the new variables, you can also revise the 
                                intermediate .txt files.
                              
    RefrEnv_help=yes            Print the help.

        
    RefrEnv support the so called bash Strict Mode like: "set -eEu -o pipefail ; shopt -s inherit_errexit"
    you can use the Strict Mode safely in your parent script without worry.

---

Note

*critical variables: are the built-in variables which belong to cmd/bash/zsh or windows and should not be refreshed normally like:

Expand for details

- windows vars:
    ALLUSERSPROFILE APPDATA CommonProgramFiles CommonProgramFiles(x86)
    CommonProgramW6432 COMPUTERNAME ComSpec HOMEDRIVE HOMEPATH LOCALAPPDATA 
    LOGONSERVER NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS OS PATHEXT PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE 
    PROCESSOR_ARCHITEW6432 PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER PROCESSOR_LEVEL 
    PROCESSOR_REVISION ProgramData ProgramFiles ProgramFiles(x86) 
    ProgramW6432 PUBLIC SystemDrive SystemRoot TEMP TMP USERDOMAIN 
    USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE USERNAME USERPROFILE windir SESSIONNAME
    
- bash vars:
    BASH BASHOPTS BASHPID BASH_ALIASES BASH_ARGC BASH_ARGV BASH_CMDS 
    BASH_COMMAND BASH_COMPLETION_VERSINFO BASH_LINENO BASH_REMATCH 
    BASH_SOURCE BASH_SUBSHELL BASH_VERSINFO BASH_VERSION COLUMNS 
    COMP_WORDBREAKS CYGWIN CYG_SYS_BASHRC DIRSTACK EUID EXECIGNORE 
    FUNCNAME GROUPS HISTCMD HISTCONTROL HISTFILE HISTFILESIZE HISTSIZE 
    HISTTIMEFORMAT HOME HOSTNAME HOSTTYPE IFS INFOPATH LANG LC_ALL 
    LC_COLLATE LC_CTYPE LC_MESSAGES LC_MONETARY LC_NUMERIC LC_TIME LINENO 
    LINES MACHTYPE MAILCHECK OLDPWD OPTERR OPTIND ORIGINAL_PATH OSTYPE PATH 
    PIPESTATUS POSIXLY_CORRECT PPID PRINTER PROFILEREAD PROMPT_COMMAND PS0 
    PS1 PS2 PS3 PS4 PWD RANDOM SECONDS SHELL SHELLOPTS SHLVL SSH_ASKPASS 
    TERM TERM_PROGRAM TERM_PROGRAM_VERSION TZ UID USER _backup_glob 
    CHILD_MAX BASH_COMPAT FUNCNEST COMP_TYPE COMP_KEY READLINE_LINE_BUFFER 
    READLINE_POINT PROMPT_DIRTRIM BASH_EXECUTION_STRING COPROC_PID COPROC 
    GLOBIGNORE HISTIGNORE SRANDOM READLINE_MARK EPOCHSECONDS EPOCHREALTIME 
    BASH_ARGV0 COMPREPLY COMP_CWORD COMP_LINE COMP_POINT COMP_WORDS EMACS 
    FCEDIT FIGNORE HOSTFILE IGNOREEOF INPUTRC INSIDE_EMACS MAPFILE 
    READLINE_LINE REPLY TIMEFORMAT TMOUT TMPDIR histchars

RefrEnv was created to respond to this Stackoverflow thread: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/171588/is-there-a-command-to-refresh-environment-variables-from-the-command-prompt-in-w