Thanks a lot! The interactive/non-interactive was indeed the core issue.
Extra frustrating because it seems like supplying `--rcfile` does nothing
if you *do* use `-c` but *don't* use `-i`...ah ad-hoc cli design.

As a general solution, I've found that adding this block in my org buffer
will make shell (which is zsh in my case) run in interactive mode for all
of these

* Local Variables :noexport:
  :PROPERTIES:
  :VISIBILITY: folded
  :END:
  local variables:
  shell-file-name: "/bin/zsh -i"
  end:

On Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 11:04 PM Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> comments in-line ...
>
> George Mauer <gmauer@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Hey Tim, thanks for helping out. I commented inline to your response
> below but I'll sum up and ask the outstanding questions more directly here
> as well.
> >
> > I think you might have misread what I was doing - I had 3 different
> variables set in 3 different places precisely because I want to dissect
> things and figure
> > out which profile/rc scripts were run.
> >
> > Yes, this is emacs running in GUI mode so yes, it doesn't have a shell
> as a parent. But that only explains why these environment variables aren't
> in
> > emacs itself, not the spawned bash or zsh processes
> >
>
> To clarify, the GUI mode is unrelated. You can run in GUI mode from a
> terminal and the emacs process will inherit the environment in the
> terminal. If that terminal is a login terminal (i.e. terminal shell was
> run as a login shell), the 'profile' file will be sourced and the 'rc'
> file will have been sourced. If not a login shell, only the rc file will
> have been sourced.
>
> If on the other hand, Emacs is started from the dock, it is started in a
> completely different process chain and is not a child of a login
> process. This is why, if you want your emacs to have /usr/local/bin in
> the path, you have to add it to /etc/paths or /etc/path.d whereas if you
> start emacs from within a terminal (GUI or text mode), you only need to
> add /usr/local/bin to your PATH setting in .profile (just an example to
> highlight the difference between running from in a terminal and running
> from the dock).
>
> > So to sum up the specific questions. My ~shell-file-name~ is ~/bin/zsh~
> which seems to be what ~ob-shell~ is passing down to be run. So why on earth
> > does my ~GIM_ZSHRC~ variable not show up here?
> >
> >   #+begin_src shell
> >     env
> >   #+end_src
> >
> > When I actually directly call bash
> >
> >  #+begin_src shell
> >     bash -c env
> >   #+end_src
> >
>
> Have a closer look on the section in the bash manual on the difference
> between interactive and non-interactive shells. (also holds for zsh).
> Basically, the 'rc' files are not sourced for non-interactive shells.
>
> > Why would the output not include ~GIM_BASHRC~ - it should have been run,
> right?
> >
>
> No. Adding the -c means it is a non-interactive shell, so no .bashrc
> sourcing.
>
>
> > What about when I call this? Even with explicitly selecting the rc file
> to run, it seems to not
> >
> >   #+begin_src shell
> >     bash --rcfile ~/.bashrc -c env
> >   #+end_src
> >
>
> Same issue here. --rcfile only has effect in interactive shells.
>
> > Finally, the outstanding question about ~ob-shell~ is if there is any
> way to force it to run the shell processes' rc-script? I really would have
> expected it to
> > be run in the above situations already...
> >
>
> You could try sourcing it e.g.
>
> #+begin_src shell
> source ~/.bashrc
> env
> #+end_src
>
> or use 'shorthand' dot
>
> #+begin_src shell
> . ~/.bashrc
> env
> #+end_src
>
> there are also some options you can add at the 'shebang' line i.e.
>
> #!/bin/bash -l
>
> or
>
> #!/bin/bash -i
>
> which will change the behaviour.
>
> There is a lot of 'meat' in the bash man page and there is a lot of
> additional information in the bash info pages. However, both can be a
> bit terse and because the info is very 'dense', it is very easy to miss
> key points.
>
> In order to have environment variables available inside your org source
> blocks, you really need to
>
> - have them in the environment inherited by emacs when it starts. This
>   will depend how you start Emacs (i.e from within an interactive shell
>   vs from the dock). Note that you typically don't see this issue under
>   Linux because in most Linux setups, the X environment is started
>   inside a login shell. So everything started as part of the X session,
>   like a dock, is a child of the login process and therefore inherits
>   the login environment. On a mac, the dock is not part of the login
>   shell, so it only inherits what is in the system wide bash profile
>   file.
>
> - Ensure your source block run as interactive and/or login shells using
>   shebang options like -i or -l
>
> - explicitly source the .profile or .bashrc file using a source call
>
> - pass the environment variable in on the command line e.g.
>
> #+begin_src shell
> FRED=barney env
> #+end_src
>
> will result in
>
> FRED=barney
>
> being in the output from 'env'.
>
>
> > -----------
> >
> >  Is this perhaps on a Mac where Emacs is started from the dock?
> >
> > Yup like I said, its in GUI mode so I understand why those environment
> variables aren't within emads itself
> >
>
> It is actually a little more subtle. It isn't because your running in
> GUI mode those variables are not there. It is because your running from
> the dock. Run it in GUI mode from within a login terminal and all those
> variables will be 'in' emacs.
>
> <snip>
>
> > It is certainly confusing but I think I got a handle on it mostly. If
> it's a login shell you'll run a profile, if it's not you'll run the default
> rc file unless one of the
> > options were specified. I think each is named specific to each shell
> name but oftentimes you chain them together in practice.
> >
>
> There is also a difference between interactive and non-interactive
> shells. I suspect this is the root cause of your issue. The source block
> being run are non-interactive.
>
> --
> Tim Cross
>
>