'Add an environemnt variable
For Ubuntu, the best place is /etc/environment.  Values placed here do
not need to be exported.'

def add_env(self, key, value):

    boto.log.info(('Adding    env    variable:    %s=%s' % (key, value)))
    if (not os.path.exists('/etc/environment.orig')):
        self.run('cp    /etc/environment    /etc/environment.orig', notify=False, exit_on_error=False)
    fp = open('/etc/environment', 'a')
    fp.write(('\n%s="%s"' % (key, value)))
    fp.close()
    os.environ[key] = value
