Hi Dokos,

o What shell are you using? Yagnesh's recommendation assumes
  that you are running bash as your shell (presumably on some
  Linux/Unix system). Is this assumption correct?

I am a normal Ubuntu (12.04) user, and recently started to use Emacs (Emacs snapshot) and loving it very much. I am sorry that I do not understand what is "Bash shell". I am starting my Emacs GTK either by right clicking on the .org files or first opening the emacs GTK by clicking on icon.

Try starting emacs from a bash
  command line.[fn:2]

Now I started emacs from terminal typing
$ emacs .
Now BIBINPUTS is working with BIBINPUTS lines in .bashrc only (I have removed the BIBINPUTS lines from .profile, to test one by one)

THANKS A LOT. IT IS WORKING NOW :)

Do I then always need to start emacs from command line ? (I will try with .profile)


=============================
The following reply was sent to Yagnesh. I am pasting it below as I understand you also asked these questions.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First of all can you confirm your .bashrc setting is working.?

in the terminal
--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
echo $BIBINPUTS
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Here is the output

~$ echo $BIBINPUTS
.//:/home/USERNAME/bst//:.//:/home/USERNAME/bibFiles//:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and also can you check what is the value of BIBINPUTS in emacs.? Within Emacs
evaluate the following (either in scratch buffer or with key press `M-:' or
with `M-x eval-expression')

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(getenv "BIBINPUTS")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


OUTPUT is: nil
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

May be the last resort would be setting the variable within your .emacs

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
(setenv "BIBINPUTS" ".:$HOME/bib:")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I will try this one
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BTW how you are starting emacs? (command line or gui mouse click?)

I am starting emacs from GUI mouse click. All the above tests are done only with the .bashrc, i.e., after  removing the lines from .profile and .gnomerc



-----------------------------
Sanjib Sikder
Ph.D. Fellow
Chemical Engineering
IIT Bombay





On Sun, Oct 14, 2012 at 10:27 AM, Nick Dokos <nicholas.dokos@hp.com> wrote:
Sanjib Sikder <sanjibju2002@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> "The easiest way to update is logout from the computer, login again and start emacs."
>
> I did that. Still not working :(
>

When you have problems like this, you need to take it in small
steps.

o What shell are you using? Yagnesh's recommendation assumes
  that you are running bash as your shell (presumably on some
  Linux/Unix system). Is this assumption correct?

o Assuming you are using bash, there are two relevant initialization
  files: a login shell sources $HOME/.profile and any shell (be it a login
  shell or one that is started as a descendant of your login shell) sources
  $HOME/.bashrc.

o Adding

  export FOO=bar

  to such an initialization file causes the variable FOO to be defined (with value "bar")
  and to be exported (i.e. it is available in the environment of *any* subprocess of
  this shell).

o So log out and log back in[fn:2], start a shell and at the prompt say

  echo $FOO

  Does it say "bar"? If not, don't go any further: the problem has nothing to do with
  emacs (note that this is the first time I mention emacs).

o If this part is OK, start emacs *from this shell*: it should inherit the variable.
  You can check by evaluating this form:

  (getenv "FOO")

  Then the variable will also be available to any subprocesses started by emacs.

o In particular, if you define BIBINPUTS as Yagnesh suggests, then the bibtex invoked
  by the latex exporter under emacs will find the bib file where you told it.

o What can go wrong? The usual problem is that you use some graphical
  desktop environment and start emacs by clicking on some icon. Then
  the emacs process does not have a bash shell as its parent, so it does
  not inherit the exported variables. Try starting emacs from a bash
  command line.[fn:2]

Nick

Footnotes:
[fn:1] If you define it in .bashrc, you shouldn't have to log out and log
       back in: just start a new bash shell.

[fn:2] I prefer defining variables in my .profile and I have arranged
       for my .profile to be sourced by the appropriate initialization
       file of my graphical desktop environment, so I get it whether I
       log in at the console or through the graphical login. That
       way *every* process, no matter how it is started, has the
       variables available to it. I use .bashrc only for aliases (which
       I use very rarely, so most of the time I don't have a .bashrc
       file at all).