How to update the global environment variables?

[marswong]

I had created a sandbox with envs:

sandbox = Sandbox.create(
  envs={
    'MY_VAR': 'my_value',
  },
)

How to update the MY_VAR dynamically?

[linear]

ENG-3439

[beran-t]

Hi @marswong, could you please share a bit more detail on your use case?

You cannot update this var during the sandbox lifetime, but you can set/overwrite the variable when running commands or code as shown below. You can also check our guide for more details https://e2b.dev/docs/sandbox/environment-variables.

from e2b import Sandbox
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

with Sandbox.create(envs={"test": "first_value"}) as sbx:
    # Read the set value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test"))  #first_value 

    # Overwrite the value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test", envs={"test": "new_value"}))  # new_value

    # Overwrite the env
    print(sbx.commands.run("test=tmp_value; echo $test"))  # tmp_value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test"))  # first_value

Please let me know if this works for you, or please give me more details on your use case. Happy to help you find a better solution.

[marswong]

Hi @marswong, could you please share a bit more detail on your use case?

You cannot update this var during the sandbox lifetime, but you can set/overwrite the variable when running commands or code as shown below. You can also check our guide for more details https://e2b.dev/docs/sandbox/environment-variables.

from e2b import Sandbox
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

with Sandbox.create(envs={"test": "first_value"}) as sbx:
    # Read the set value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test"))  #first_value 

    # Overwrite the value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test", envs={"test": "new_value"}))  # new_value

    # Overwrite the env
    print(sbx.commands.run("test=tmp_value; echo $test"))  # tmp_value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test"))  # first_value

Please let me know if this works for you, or please give me more details on your use case. Happy to help you find a better solution.

Hi @RatArt , thanks for the workaround, it works in some cases, while we still have some running services in the sandbox which rely on the global environment variables, we need a one-time fix to reset them, or it's really hard to guarantee whether the services are running as expected.

[beran-t]

In that case, you can set up environments in either .profile for non-interactive environments, and .bashrc for interactive sessions.

If you start a sandbox and set a variable there, any processes started in the sandbox will have the variable in their context. You can then rewrite it anytime you need.

with Sandbox.create() as sbx:

    sbx.commands.run("""echo 'export test="my_custom_value"' >> ~/.profile """)

    # Read the set value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test").stdout)  # first_value 

    # Overwrite the value
    print(sbx.commands.run(r"""sed -i 's/^export test="[^"]*"/export test="NEW_VALUE"/' ~/.profile"""))

    # Read the set value
    print(sbx.commands.run("echo $test").stdout)  # NEW_VALUE 

Would this work for your case?