- Qt Creator Documentation
- Edit environment settings
- Qt Creator 20.0.0

Configure projects for running ◦ Enable debugging

# Edit environment settings

You can change the environment variable values for build or run environments globally or for a particular project or kit:

- To change values globally, go to Preferences > Environment > System, and select Change in Environment.
- To change values for a project, select Edit or Add in the project, build, or run environment settings.
- To change values for a kit, go to Preferences > Kits > Kits, and select Edit Build Environment or Edit Run Environment in Environment.

Use the following syntax to enter environment variable names and values: `<VARIABLE>=<VALUE>`. To temporarily disable a variable, add a hash character (#) to the beginning of the line.

Note: Using this approach for a different statement (append, prepend, unset) may result in unexpected changes of the environment.

To remove a variable value from the environment, enter the variable name. For example, `TEST` sets the value of the `TEST` variable empty when building or running the project.

To add a variable value to the environment, enter the variable name and value, separated by the equals sign. For example, the following line prepends the `/opt/bin` folder to the existing PATH:

- On Windows: `PATH=C:\opt\bin;${PATH}`
- On Linux: `PATH=/opt/bin:${PATH}`

To add or remove several variables, place them on separate lines. The order is important. If you remove a value on a line, you cannot refer to it on the following lines. However, you can remove a value after you have referred to it on an earlier line.

To add a comment or disable any of the above actions, prefix it with two hash characters (##).

To use a file as the source for the environment variables, select Get variables from text file or shell script and enter the path to the file. For more information, see Use environment variables from a file.

## Set variable separators

For environment variables that use non-standard list separators, you can set custom separators:

1. Go to Preferences > Environment > System.
2. Select Change in Variable separators.
3. Select Add.
4. Enter the variable name and separator.
5. Select OK.

See also Specify the environment for projects, Configure projects for building, Configure projects for running, Use Qt Creator variables, and Managing kits.