Setting environment variable globally without restarting Ubuntu

Question

I know that system wide environment variables can be set by adding entries into

/etc/environment

or

/etc/profile

Answer 1

I fear the solution here is a frustrating one: Don't use environment variables. Instead use a file.

So, instead of setting up /etc/environment with:

SPECIAL_VAR='some/path/I/want/later/'

And calling it with:

$SPECIAL_VAR

Instead, create a file at ~/.yourvars with the content:

SPECIAL_VAR='some/path/I/want/later/'

And source the thing every time you need the variable:

cd `source ~/.yourvars; echo $SPECIAL_VAR`

A hack? Perhaps. But it works.