How to permanently enable scl CentOS 6.4?

In your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile Simply source the "enable" script provided with the devtoolset. For example, with the Devtoolset 2, the command is:

source /opt/rh/devtoolset-2/enable

or

source scl_source enable devtoolset-2

Lot more efficient: no forkbomb, no tricky shell

An alternative of source /opt/rh/devtoolset-4/enable is

source scl_source enable devtoolset-4

The above shell script scl_source is more elegant than using a hard coded path (may be different on another machine). However scl_source does less because /opt/rh/devtoolset-4/enable uses scl_source and other stuff.

To use scl_source you may have to upgrade package scl-utils

yum update scl-utils  # old scl-utils versions miss scl_source

Quick copy-paste

echo 'source scl_source enable devtoolset-4' >> ~/.bashrc
    # Do not forget to change the version ↑

---

Source code for curious people

An example of scl_source source code:
https://gist.github.com/bkabrda/6435016

The scl_source installed on my Red Hat 7.1

#!/bin/bash

_scl_source_help="Usage: source scl_source <action> [<collection> ...]

Don't use this script outside of SCL scriptlets!

Options:
    -h, --help    display this help and exit"

if [ $# -eq 0 -o $1 = "-h" -o $1 = "--help" ]; then
    echo "$_scl_source_help"
    return 0
fi


if [ -z "$_recursion" ]; then
    _recursion="false"
fi
if [ -z "$_scl_scriptlet_name" ]; then
    # The only allowed action in the case of recursion is the same
    # as was the original
    _scl_scriptlet_name=$1
fi
shift 1

if [ -z "$_scl_dir" ]; then
    # No need to re-define the directory twice
    _scl_dir=/etc/scl/conf
    if [ ! -e $_scl_dir ]; then
        _scl_dir=/etc/scl/prefixes
    fi
fi

for arg in "$@"; do
    _scl_prefix_file=$_scl_dir/$arg
    _scl_prefix=`cat $_scl_prefix_file 2> /dev/null`
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Can't read $_scl_prefix_file, $arg is probably not installed."
        return 1
    fi

    # First check if the collection is already in the list
    # of collections to be enabled
    for scl in ${_scls[@]}; do
        if [ $arg == $scl ]; then
            continue 2
        fi
    done

    # Now check if the collection isn't already enabled
    /usr/bin/scl_enabled $arg > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        _scls+=($arg)
        _scl_prefixes+=($_scl_prefix)
    fi;
done

if [ $_recursion == "false" ]; then
    _i=0
    _recursion="true"
    while [ $_i -lt ${#_scls[@]} ]; do
        _scl_scriptlet_path="${_scl_prefixes[$_i]}/${_scls[$_i]}/${_scl_scriptlet_name}"
        source "$_scl_scriptlet_path"
        if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
            echo "Can't source $_scl_scriptlet_name, skipping."
        else
            export X_SCLS="${_scls[$_i]} $X_SCLS"
        fi;
        _i=$(($_i+1))
    done
    _scls=()
    _scl_prefixes=()
    _scl_scriptlet_name=""
    _recursion="false"
fi

The problem is that scl enable devtoolset-1.1 bash creates a new bash shell. So when you put it in your .bashrc, it creates a new shell...which loads your .bashrc, which runs scl enable devtoolset-1.1 bash, which creates a new shell, which loads your .bashrc... Forkbomb!

You probably want something like this in your .bashrc:

if [ "$(gcc -dumpversion)" != "4.7.2" ]; then 
  scl enable devtoolset-1.1 bash
fi

or

if [ -z "$TRIEDSCLDEVTOOLSET" ]; then
  export TRIEDSCLDEVTOOLSET=true
  scl enable devtoolset-1.1 bash
fi

• the first will continue to forkbomb if devtoolset-1.1 does not contain gcc 4.7.2, and will also fail to work if your native environment has gcc 4.7.2.
• this creates a new shell, as above. So when you create your terminal window or ssh session, you will be in two bash sessions, and have to exit twice.