Bruno is right on track. I've done extensive research and if you want to set variables that are available in all GUI applications, your only option is /etc/launchd.conf.

Please note that environment.plist does not work for applications launched via Spotlight. This is documented by Steve Sexton here.

1. Open a terminal prompt

2. Type sudo vi /etc/launchd.conf (note: this file might not yet exist)

3. Put contents like the following into the file

   # Set environment variables here so they are available globally to all apps
   # (and Terminal), including those launched via Spotlight.
   #
   # After editing this file run the following command from the terminal to update
   # environment variables globally without needing to reboot.
   # NOTE: You will still need to restart the relevant application (including
   # Terminal) to pick up the changes!
   # grep -E "^setenv" /etc/launchd.conf | xargs -t -L 1 launchctl
   #
   # See http://www.digitaledgesw.com/node/31
   # and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/135688/setting-environment-variables-in-os-x/
   #
   # Note that you must hardcode the paths below, don't use environment variables.
   # You also need to surround multiple values in quotes, see MAVEN_OPTS example below.
   #
   setenv JAVA_VERSION 1.6
   setenv JAVA_HOME /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home
   setenv GROOVY_HOME /Applications/Dev/groovy
   setenv GRAILS_HOME /Applications/Dev/grails
   setenv NEXUS_HOME /Applications/Dev/nexus/nexus-webapp
   setenv JRUBY_HOME /Applications/Dev/jruby
   
   setenv ANT_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-ant
   setenv ANT_OPTS -Xmx512M
   
   setenv MAVEN_OPTS "-Xmx1024M -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"
   setenv M2_HOME /Applications/Dev/apache-maven
   
   setenv JMETER_HOME /Applications/Dev/jakarta-jmeter
   

4. Save your changes in vi and reboot your Mac. Or use the grep/xargs command which is shown in the code comment above.

5. Prove that your variables are working by opening a Terminal window and typing export and you should see your new variables. These will also be available in IntelliJ IDEA and other GUI applications you launch via Spotlight.

I have a .profile in my home directory; it contains many export … statements for environment variables.

You can create such a file by opening a Terminal and issuing the command touch .profile.

Close Terminal.

Then you should open that file in a plain-text editor (TextWrangler for example). You can also use nano .profile in a Terminal window (current directory should be your home), which is much easier than vi. Insert lines such as export JAVA_HOME=…. Save, exit nano if you used that and quit a running Terminal.

Open Terminal and issue the command env to see all environment variables. Check that the ones you defined have the value you assigned to them. You should be good to go now but don't forget that environment variables defined in .profile are not passed to GUI applications.

You can set the environment variable in ~/.zprofile

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
export PATH=/opt/apache-maven-3.5.2/bin:$PATH
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin
export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home)

This works fine for macOS Monterey

Bash

Since Bash is typically the default shell you can open up this file in your home directory:

$ vim ~/.bash_profile

And add your variable to this file:

export ENV_VAR=12345

You can do this without even having to edit this file if you like, using the following one-liner:

$ echo 'export ENV_VAR=12345' >> ~/.bash_profile

And then confirm like so:

$ cat ~/.bash_profile
for i in ~/.bash_profile.d/[0-9]*; do
  . "$i"
done
export ENV_VAR=12345

After doing the above, if you open a new terminal you should see that environment variable has been set:

$ echo $ENV_VAR
12345

Zsh

If you find that you're using an alternative shell such as zsh, that uses a different set of configuration files maintained within your home directory, ~. Luckily the syntax of the changes is basically the same, just different files. So you can add the above example to this file instead:

$ echo 'export ENV_VAR=12345' >> ~/.zshenv

And then when you launch a zsh:

$ echo $ENV_VAR
12345

References

• Zsh Startup Files

macOS Big Sur uses zsh as the default login shell and interactive shell.

If you’re using a Bash profile, such as to set environment variables, aliases, or path variables, you should switch to using a zsh equivalent.

For example:

• .zprofile is equivalent to .bash_profile and runs at login, including over SSH
• .zshrc is equivalent to .bashrc and runs for each new Terminal session

You can create .zprofile and enter the enter the environment variables there.

Reference

First, one thing to recognize about OS X is that it is built on Unix. This is where the .bash_profile comes in. When you start the Terminal app in OS X you get a bash shell by default. The bash shell comes from Unix and when it loads it runs the .bash_profile script. You can modify this script for your user to change your settings. This file is located at:

~/.bash_profile

Update for Mavericks

OS X Mavericks does not use the environment.plist - at least not for OS X windows applications. You can use the launchd configuration for windowed applications. The .bash_profile is still supported since that is part of the bash shell used in Terminal.

Lion and Mountain Lion Only

OS X windowed applications receive environment variables from the your environment.plist file. This is likely what you mean by the ".plist" file. This file is located at:

~/.MacOSX/environment.plist

If you make a change to your environment.plist file then OS X windows applications, including the Terminal app, will have those environment variables set. Any environment variable you set in your .bash_profile will only affect your bash shells.

Generally I only set variables in my .bash_profile file and don't change the .plist file (or launchd file on Mavericks). Most OS X windowed applications don't need any custom environment. Only when an application actually needs a specific environment variable do I change the environment.plist (or launchd file on Mavericks).

It sounds like what you want is to change the environment.plist file, rather than the .bash_profile.

One last thing, if you look for those files, I think you will not find them. If I recall correctly, they were not on my initial install of Lion.

Edit: Here are some instructions for creating a plist file.

1. Open Xcode
2. Select File -> New -> New File...
3. Under Mac OS X select Resources
4. Choose a plist file
5. Follow the rest of the prompts

To edit the file, you can Control-click to get a menu and select Add Row. You then can add a key value pair. For environment variables, the key is the environment variable name and the value is the actual value for that environment variable.

Once the plist file is created you can open it with Xcode to modify it anytime you wish.

Just did this really easy and quick. First create a ~/.bash_profile from terminal:

touch ~/.bash_profile

then

open -a TextEdit.app ~/.bash_profile

add

export TOMCAT_HOME=/Library/Tomcat/Home

Save document in TextEdit and you are done.