On Windows, you can use the Win32::AdminMisc module (by Dave Roth, not on CPAN), which has a function for this, SetEnvVar:
SetEnvVar( $Name, $Value [, $Type [, $Timeout ] ] )
This will set an environment variable $Name to $Value.
This function will set the variable
(creating it if $Name does not exist).
The new value will be set globally so all
applications will be able to use it, unlike setting $ENV{xxx}
— which sets the variable for the current
process and any children it spawns afterwards.
When this function is called a broadcast to all running applications is made telling
them about the variable change. An application may choose to ignore the change
if it was programmed to do so.
If $Timeout is specified then the broadcast
announcement will be aborted if it takes longer than $Timeout seconds
(some applications may be in a hung state so they can not acknowledge the broadcast).
If this timeout occurs the variable will still be updated but broadcasting it's change will be aborted.
If $Type is specified it can be one of:
- ENV_SYSTEM
- Specifies that $Name will be a system environment variable. (default if $Type is not specified)
- ENV_USER
- Specifies that $Name will be a user environment variable.
This function is the equivalent to setting an environment variable in the control panel's system applet.
NOTE: Your script will not see the new value. For that you should set $ENV{xxx}.
Example:
Win32::AdminMisc::SetEnvVar( "Temp", "$ENV{HOMEDRIVE}$ENV{HOMEPATH}",
+ENV_USER, 10 );
Returns:
- 0 if not successful
- 1 if successful
Win32::AdminMisc also has a DelEnvVar function for deleting environment variables.
