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Environment variables

You can configure certain properties for your SDK execution environment using environment variables.

This section lists the environment variables that are currently supported with examples of how to use them. In most cases, you can set environment variables for a session by executing an command in the terminal or by adding a line similar to the following to your .profile file:

export DFX_NETWORK=ic

CANISTER_CANDID_PATH_{canister.name}​

Use environment variables with the CANISTER_CANDID_PATH prefix to reference the path to the Candid description file for the canisters that are listed as dependencies in the dfx.json file for your project.

For example, if you have a whoami_frontend canister that lists whoami under the dependencies key, you could use the CANISTER_CANDID_PATH_whoami_frontend environment variable to refer to the location of the whoami.did file, which for local development might be:

$PROJECT_ROOT/.dfx/local/canisters/whoami/whoami.did

CANISTER_ID_{canister.name}​

Use environment variables with the CANISTER_ID prefix to reference the canister identifier for each canister in the dfx.json file for your project. Hyphens are invalid in environment variables and are replaced by underscores.

For example, if you have a linkedup project that consists of the linkedup and connect-d canisters, you could use the CANISTER_ID_linkedup and CANISTER_ID_connect_d environment variables to refer to the canister identifiers—for example ryjl3-tyaaa-aaaaa-aaaba-cai and rrkah-fqaaa-aaaaa-aaaaq-cai—created for your project.

DFX_CONFIG_ROOT​

Use the DFX_CONFIG_ROOT environment variable to specify a different location for storing the .cache and .config subdirectories for dfx.

By default, the .cache and .config directories are located in the home directory for your development environment. For example, on macOS the default location is in the /Users/<YOUR-USER-NAME> directory. Use the DFX_CONFIG_ROOT environment variable to specify a different location for these directories.

DFX_CONFIG_ROOT=~/ic-root

DFX_INSTALLATION_ROOT​

Use the DFX_INSTALLATION_ROOT environment variable to specify a different location for the dfx binary if you are not using the default location for your operating system.

The .cache/dfinity/uninstall.sh script uses this environment variable to identify the root directory for your SDK installation.

DFX_VERSION​

Use the DFX_VERSION environment variable to identify a specific version of the SDK that you want to install.

DFX_VERSION=0.10.0 sh -ci "$(curl -fsSL https://internetcomputer.org/install.sh)"