The shell script is sourced by a different shell, not the one you invoke it from. The shell exits when its done executing the shell script. So its a different session. Hence you won't be able to access the variables set in a shell script. So you'll need to set env variables in your shell from which you invoke the shell script. And you;ll be able to use the variabels in your shell script. Or you can set it in your .profile or .${SHELL}rc .