The STEPUP_ROOT variable

If you are working on a large project with several subdirectories, it may be useful to define the STEPUP_ROOT environment variable. It should contain the absolute path of the top-level directory where you would normally call the stepup command. (The top-level directory contains the .stepup subdirectory and the top-level plan.py.)

With STEPUP_ROOT set, it is no longer necessary to change to the top-level directory before running sb. Also, stepup clean arguments will be interpreted correctly in subdirectories.

Despite the similar name, STEPUP_ROOT is unrelated to the ${ROOT} substitution variable. STEPUP_ROOT is an absolute path that you set to tell the stepup command where the project lives, whereas ${ROOT} is a relative path that StepUp defines for a running step. See HERE and ROOT Variables for the latter.

You can manually set STEPUP_ROOT in the top-level directory as follows:

export STEPUP_ROOT="${PWD}"

However, this can be tedious, as it has to be set each time you open a new terminal window. It is much easier to set such variables using direnv, a tool that automatically loads and unloads environment variables as you enter and leave a directory. Once direnv is configured on your system, you can create an .envrc file with the above export line in the top-level directory. Each time you change to the project directory or any of its subdirectories, the STEPUP_ROOT directory will automatically be set correctly.