node.jswindowselectronsetx

How to append values to the PATH environment variable in NodeJS?

Following the answer suggested in the question -

Is it possible to permanently set environment variables?

I was able to set new environment variables permanently with the command - 

spawnSync('setx', ['-m', 'MyDownloads', 'H:\\temp\\downloads'])

But now my goal is to append new values to the PATH environment variable.

Is it possible?

Solution

  • Why don't you just get the environment variable and then append to it?

    I.e.

    const {spawnSync} = require("child_process");
const current_value = process.env.PATH;
const new_path_value = current_value.concat(";", "/some/new/path");

var result = spawnSync('setx', ['-m', 'PATH', new_path_value])

// STDOUT
var stdOut = result.stdout.toString();
console.log(stdOut)

// STDERR
var stdErr =  result.stderr.toString();

if(stdErr === '') {
    console.log('Successfully set environment variable')
} else {
    console.log(`ERROR: ${stderr}`)
}

    Update "/some/new/path" and run this as admin as the link you provided suggests and it should work.