change environment variable via script

[Darrin Chandler]

Alex Dean wrote:

> I'm using bash (on OSX).  In ~/.bash_profile, I have a CVSROOT 
> variable set so I can connect to 1 CVS server.  I occasionally want to 
> connect to another cvs server, so I wrote a shell script to set a new 
> CVSROOT value for me.  The script appears to set the value correctly, 
> but it doesn't change my environment settings outside of the script.  
> It seems like it's a global vs. local variable issue. (CVSROOT is set 
> differently within the context of the script, but is the change is 
> forgotten when the script exits.)  I don't do shell scripts very 
> often, so I'm probably missing something really obvious.  How do I 
> tell the script I want to change the value 'for real'?

export CVSROOT

Each shell gets a copy of the environment. Mods are local by default. 
Think about it a moment and you'll see why it must be that way.

-- 
Darrin Chandler
dwchandler at stilyagin.com
http://www.stilyagin.com/