> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/use/validate/running-an-aleph-node-on-testnet/building-and-running-from-source-advanced/set-environment-variables.md).

# Set environment variables

To run the node you will have to set several variables. Below you can find example configurations which you might want to tailor to your needs.

### Variables

It is the most convenient to put all of the variables into a file that you can later source, let's assume it's called `set_env.sh` and has the following contents:

```bash
export NAME="..."             # <-- FILL THIS
export PUBLIC_IP_OR_DNS="..." # <-- FILL THIS
export PUBLIC_ADDR="..."      # <-- FILL THIS
export BASE_PATH="$HOME/data" # choose any directory you'd like, `$HOME/.aleph_zero` is also a popular choice
export BOOT_NODES="/dns4/bootnode-eu-central-1-0.test.azero.dev/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWRkGLz4YbVmrsWK75VjFTs8NvaBu42xhAmQaP4KeJpw1L/dns4/bootnode-us-east-1-0.test.azero.dev/tcp/30333/p2p/12D3KooWSv1nApKkcnq8ZVHJQLK5GJ4NKS9ebag9QrRTzksLTGUy"
export CHAIN="${BASE_PATH}/chainspec.json"
export NODE_KEY_PATH="${BASE_PATH}/p2p_secret"
export BACKUP_PATH="${BASE_PATH}/backup-stash"
export POOL_LIMIT="100"
export PORT="30333"
export VALIDATOR_PORT="30343"
export PUBLIC_VALIDATOR_ADDRESS="${PUBLIC_IP_OR_DNS}:${VALIDATOR_PORT}"
export RPC_PORT="9944"
export RUST_LOG="info"
export SYNC="Fast"
export TELEMETRY_URL='wss://telemetry.polkadot.io/submit/'
export TELEMETRY_VERBOSITY_LVL='0'
export VALIDATOR="true"
export RPC_MAX_CONNECTIONS="100"
export DATABASE_ENGINE="paritydb"
```

:exclamation:Note There are a couple parameters above you should fill by yourself (the first three):

1. **`NAME`** should be a name for your node. It’s mostly used for logging in various ways, so make it specific and recognizable.
2. **`PUBLIC_IP_OR_DNS`** should be set to the public, static IP of your node (or a domain name pointing to such address). Note that this should not include the port, which is specified by a separate variable (`VALIDATOR_PORT`).
3. **`PUBLIC_ADDR`** should contain a public address in the libp2p format that your node will be using. This can also be omitted: in that case it will be auto-generated.\
   The libp2p format is the following: `/ip4/<your ip>/tcp/30333` or `/dns4/<your domain>/tcp/30333` (the port number is what you set as `PORT` above).

Remember to `export` the variables for later use.

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that these variables should be available every time you run the binary, so you might want to put them in your `.bashrc` (or your shell's equivalent)&#x20;
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that the directory that's your `$BASE_PATH` has to be manually created if it doesn't exist:

`mkdir -p $BASE_PATH && cd $BASE_PATH`
{% endhint %}