How do I get STS 4 to recognize environment variables defined in my ~/.bash_profile file?

Question

I'm using STS 4.6.2.RELEASE on Mac OS X and am attempting to build a Spring Boot 2 project. I have defined these environment variables in my ~/.bash_profile file...

export PG_DB_NAME=cardmania
export PG_DB_USER=cardmania
export PG_DB_PASS=password
export PG_DB_HOST=localhost

Then in my src/main/resources/application.properties file, I have defined

spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.dialect = org.hibernate.dialect.PostgreSQLDialect

spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create

spring.jpa.hibernate.show-sql=true

spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://${PG_DB_HOST:localhost}:5432/${PG_DB_NAME}

spring.datasource.username=${PG_DB_USER}
spring.datasource.password=${PG_DB_PASS}

However, when I start my Spring Boot app from within STS by right-clicking on my project and selecting "Run As" -> "Spring Boot App," I get this error...

org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: FATAL: role "${PG_DB_USER}" does not exist
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.receiveErrorResponse(QueryExecutorImpl.java:2532) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.readStartupMessages(QueryExecutorImpl.java:2644) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.<init>(QueryExecutorImpl.java:137) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.ConnectionFactoryImpl.openConnectionImpl(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java:255) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.core.ConnectionFactory.openConnection(ConnectionFactory.java:49) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.jdbc.PgConnection.<init>(PgConnection.java:217) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.Driver.makeConnection(Driver.java:458) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at org.postgresql.Driver.connect(Driver.java:260) ~[postgresql-42.2.14.jar:42.2.14]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.util.DriverDataSource.getConnection(DriverDataSource.java:138) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.PoolBase.newConnection(PoolBase.java:358) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.PoolBase.newPoolEntry(PoolBase.java:206) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool.createPoolEntry(HikariPool.java:477) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool.checkFailFast(HikariPool.java:560) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool.<init>(HikariPool.java:115) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource.getConnection(HikariDataSource.java:112) ~[HikariCP-3.4.5.jar:na]
    at org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.connections.internal.DatasourceConnectionProviderImpl.getConnection(DatasourceConnectionProviderImpl.java:122) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.env.internal.JdbcEnvironmentInitiator$ConnectionProviderJdbcConnectionAccess.obtainConnection(JdbcEnvironmentInitiator.java:180) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.env.internal.JdbcEnvironmentInitiator.initiateService(JdbcEnvironmentInitiator.java:68) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.engine.jdbc.env.internal.JdbcEnvironmentInitiator.initiateService(JdbcEnvironmentInitiator.java:35) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.registry.internal.StandardServiceRegistryImpl.initiateService(StandardServiceRegistryImpl.java:101) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.createService(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:263) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.initializeService(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:237) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.getService(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:214) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.id.factory.internal.DefaultIdentifierGeneratorFactory.injectServices(DefaultIdentifierGeneratorFactory.java:152) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.injectDependencies(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:286) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.initializeService(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:243) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.service.internal.AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.getService(AbstractServiceRegistryImpl.java:214) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.internal.InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.<init>(InFlightMetadataCollectorImpl.java:176) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.boot.model.process.spi.MetadataBuildingProcess.complete(MetadataBuildingProcess.java:118) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.metadata(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1224) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:1255) ~[hibernate-core-5.4.17.Final.jar:5.4.17.Final]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.createContainerEntityManagerFactory(SpringHibernateJpaPersistenceProvider.java:58) ~[spring-orm-5.2.7.RELEASE.jar:5.2.7.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.createNativeEntityManagerFactory(LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:365) ~[spring-orm-5.2.7.RELEASE.jar:5.2.7.RELEASE]
    at org.springframework.orm.jpa.AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.buildNativeEntityManagerFactory(AbstractEntityManagerFactoryBean.java:391) ~[spring-orm-5.2.7.RELEASE.jar:5.2.7.RELEASE]
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628) ~[na:na]
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834) ~[na:na]

I do not encounter this error if I run "java -jar target/cardmania-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar" on a normal shell command line.

Answer 1

I believe this behaviour has more to do with your IDE than your environment variables configurations. I faced the same problem and found a workaround, Eclipse STS lets you define environment variables for the Run Configuration:

You could check this answer too, maybe it gives you other approaches

Answer 2

If you launch STS from Finder, Dock or Spotlight, you should edit ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist , but not ~/.bash_profile .

see also:

• Setting environment variables on OS X

If you launch STS from command line(bash), it is not required.