You have tried ~/.bashrc, ~/.profiles, /etc/environment, ~/.ssh/environment etc… but hudson slave fails to see your environment variables.

Fix is actually simple. Hudson doesn’t read slave environment each time you run the build.

You need to:
1 – set environment ;
2 – disconnect and reconnect hudson slave.

Software:

Hudson 1.355
Ubuntu Linux 9.x

Should also work for:

Other Hudson versions, most Unix systems

1

Set .bashrc and .profiles on slave

It might also work if you just add your variable to ~/.bashrc or ~/.profiles. In my case, I set  THE SAME  environment for both interactive shell and not interactive.

.profiles will use .bashrc.
Add to ~/.profiles:

source .bashrc

Add you environment variable to ~/.bashrc:

export MY_VARIABLE=MY_VALUE

IMPORTANT Here is a complete howto for SSH environment variables: Setting ssh remote host environment variables (Interactive shell)

2

Disconnect and reconnect Hudson slave

1. Go to your node home : Hudson ? nodes ? my-great-node ;
2. Select from the left menu disconnect;
3. Then just click the button Launch slave agent

3

Test it

Simple check:
1 – create a free-style software project;
2 – add an Execute shell step
3 – command = env
4 – Tie this project to a node (your newly configured node)
5 – run and see that your environment variable is there

Have fun!