

![Hero](/images/finding-right-path/hero.png)

On a recent project, I got the opportunity to create a desktop application using [Electron](https://electronjs.org), [React](https://reactjs.org) and [Go](https://golang.org). Electron served as a tool to bundle the React app and the Go server in a neat little installable package. It also took care of starting the Go server as a subprocess when the app launched.

The included Go server performed a few dependency checks at each startup by trying to find some particular executables in the `PATH`.

```go
func checkDependency(cmd string) bool {
  _, err := exec.LookPath(cmd)
  return err == nil
}
```

This worked great during the development period, but once I built an installable package and installed the app, these dependency checks failed every time I launched it.

_Curiously, the checks only failed only on MacOS and Linux, not on Windows._

_Even more curiously, launching the installed app through a terminal seemingly fixed this problem._

The reason for this behaviour, as I found out after several hours of painful debugging, was unexpected inheritance of the `PATH` environment variable.

## Inheritance of Environment Variables

**A newly spawned child process inherits its parent's environment variables.**

To demonstrate this, let's build a couple of Go programs: `envReader` and `envParent`.

`envReader` reads a special environment variable _"SpecialEnv"_ and prints its value, or _"\<Not Found\>"_ if it is not set.

```go
// envReader
func main() {
  val := os.Getenv("SpecialEnv")
  if val == "" {
    val = "<Not Found>"
  }
  fmt.Printf("%d: SpecialEnv: %s", os.Getpid(), val)
}
```

`envParent`, runs `envReader` as a subprocess twice, with the "SpecialEnv" set only in the second invocation.

```go
// envParent
func main() {
  fmt.Println("Before setting special env:")
  runChild()

  fmt.Println("Setting SpecialEnv in parent")
  os.Setenv("SpecialEnv", "SpecialValue")

  fmt.Println("After setting special env:")
  runChild()
}

func runChild() {
  child := exec.Command("envReader")
  output, _ := child.Output() // Error handling omitted for brevity
  fmt.Println(string(output))
}
```

This produces the following output:

```shell
Before setting special env:
62231: SpecialEnv: <Not Found>

Setting SpecialEnv in parent

After setting special env:
62232: SpecialEnv: SpecialValue
```

In the first invocation, _"SpecialEnv"_ is not set and hence the produced output contains _"\<Not Found\>"_. After this, the parent calls `os.Setenv` and sets a value to it. Note that this value is not exported, so it is _local to the `envParent` processes only_[^1]. Yet, the second invocation of the child process finds it successfully.

This proves that child processes inherit their parent's environment variables.

## Inherited PATH outside the Terminal

During development, it is common to launch Electron apps using the `electron` command from a terminal. This creates a new process and starts the app. Since this process is spawned from a terminal shell, it inherits all the environment variables of the shell session. This includes any custom variables defined in shell config files such as `.bashrc` and `.bash_profile`, like a custom `PATH`.

Once the app is shipped, consumers don't use the terminal to launch it. They use GUI icons, which means the app process is not created by a terminal, but by the Desktop Environment.

The desktop environment process does not concern itself with custom configuration files such as `.bash_profile`, hence its version of the `PATH` environment variable is terse. It does not contain any custom directories the user might have specified in their shell config files.

To show this in action, I wrote a small app with [fyne](https://github.com/fyne-io/fyne) which shows the `PATH` value of the current process. You can find the source [here](https://gist.github.com/haroldadmin/73dc2ca674aaf566c02fe66109b2f859), if interested.

Here's what it looks like when launched from the **GUI**:

![PATH when launched from GUI](/images/finding-right-path/from-gui.png)

And here it is when launched from the **terminal**:

![PATH when launched from Terminal](/images/finding-right-path/from-terminal.png)

Clearly, we're missing out on a lot when our app is launched from the GUI.

(_Also, I really need to cleanup my PATH config_)

## Finding the correct PATH

Fortunately, this problem is easy to solve. With the help of the user's default shell, we can find the complete PATH with the `env` command.

- All processes have access to the `SHELL` environment variable, which contains the location of the default shell executable (eg, _"/bin/bash"_)
- Most shells support the `env` command to list all the environment variables they have access to
- Therefore, running the default shell in an interactive, login mode[^2] with the `env` command should give us, among other variables, the complete PATH.

The Go implementation of this is not too complicated:

```go
func fixPath() {
  // Find the default shell
  defaultShell := os.Getenv("SHELL")

  // Prepare command to get all environment variables
  // eg. /bin/bash -ilc env
  envCommand := exec.Command(defaultShell, "-ilc", "env")
  allEnvVars, _ := envCommand.Output()

  // Find the PATH variable
  for _, envVar := range strings.Split(string(allEnvVars), "\n") {
    if strings.HasPrefix(envVar, "PATH") {
      currentPath := os.Getenv("PATH")
      // Append retrieved PATH to existing value, to get the complete PATH
      completePath := currentPath + string(os.PathListSeparator) + envVar
      // Set the current process's PATH to the complete PATH
      os.Setenv("PATH", completePath)
      return
    }
  }
}
```

I have created a small Go package which do this, and a little more: [_pathfix_](https://github.com/haroldadmin/pathfix).

To use it, add it to your project with `go get github.com/haroldadmin/pathfix`, and then call the `Fix` method to fix your process's PATH:

```go
pathfix.Fix()
```

<br />

Here it is in action, using the app shown earlier.

_Before the fix:_

![Before fix](/images/finding-right-path/before-fix.png)

_After the fix:_

![After fix](/images/finding-right-path/after-fix.png)

If you need to do it in Electron using NodeJS, there is a handy package [_fix-path_](https://github.com/sindresorhus/fix-path) for it.

## Some Notes

- After fixing this problem, I wondered why didn't I encounter this error on Windows. I suspect that Environment Variables on Windows are global by default, and hence every process receives the same `PATH` value every time. I might be wrong about this, please feel free to correct me.

- I also stumbled across PAM Environment Variables which are apparently a more "correct" way of solving this on Linux. You can read more about them in the [documentation](http://www.linux-pam.org/Linux-PAM-html/sag-pam_env.html) and the [Arch Wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Environment_variables#Using_pam_env). The gist of it is that you need to define your environment variables in a `pam_env` file, but the syntax for it is different. I would be grateful if someone took the time out to explain their usage in a more approachable manner.

- Another potential solution for Linux users is to define their environment variables in the `~/.profile` file, which is sourced by the OS shell on every login. However, just like with the `pam_env` solution, this puts the burden of configuration on your users instead of you.

---

_Question, comments or feedback? Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter [@haroldadmin](https://twitter.com/haroldadmin)_

[^1]: Bash environment variables should be declared with `export` to make them available to other processes. eg., `export PATH=$PATH:~/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/`
[^2]: Using the `-il` options when launching the shell makes sure that it reads common config files, such as `*.rc` and `*.profile`. The `-c` at the end just makes sure that the shell reads only the `env` command, and nothing more. Read more about interactive, non-interactive, login and non-login shells [here](https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/38175/difference-between-login-shell-and-non-login-shell)


Fixing the PATH environment variable inherited by child processes from their parents

# Electron