Env Var Explorer

Search for where an environment variable is defined across:

• System-wide shell init (/etc/bashrc, /etc/profile, etc.)
• User shell init files (~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile, etc.)
• PAM environment (/etc/security/)
• systemd unit files (Environment= and EnvironmentFile= directives, with recursive scanning of referenced files)
• Sysconfig / app dirs (/etc/sysconfig/, /etc/default/, /etc/conf.d/)
• Live processes (/proc/*/environ, own user only without root)
• Running Docker containers (via docker inspect)

ℹ️ Script is mostly generated by LLM with some manual tweaks

Example

$ ./env_var_explorer.sh AIRFLOW_HOME

=== System-wide shell init ===
  ✔ /etc/environment
    1:AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow

=== User shell init files ===

=== PAM environment ===

=== systemd unit files ===
  ✔ /etc/systemd/system/airflow-webserver.service
    10:Environment="AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow"
  ✔ /etc/systemd/system/airflow-flower.service
    10:Environment="AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow"
  ✔ /etc/systemd/system/airflow-scheduler.service
    10:Environment="AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow"
  (skipped — not readable: /etc/sysconfig/sshd)
  (skipped — not readable: /etc/sysconfig/crond)
  (skipped — not readable: /etc/sysconfig/sshd)

=== Application / sysconfig files ===

=== Live processes with AIRFLOW_HOME in their environment ===
  ✔ PID 17831 (python3)  ←  PPID 1 (systemd)this
    AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow
  ✔ PID 17831 (bash)  ←  PPID 17829 (sshd)this
    AIRFLOW_HOME=/home/airflow/airflow

=== Running Docker containers ===
  (docker not found in PATH, skipping)

────────────────────────────────────
Found! See matches above.
Some locations were skipped (not readable as current user).
Re-run with sudo for full coverage.