If the environment variable still works, it could be set by a distribution (esp scientific ones) or in your .bashrc: eg. `export VAR=5`. If that fails, as OP i

If the environment variable still works, it could be set by a distribution (esp scientific ones) or in your .bashrc: eg. `export VAR=5`. If that fails, as OP implies, you can still override the function by creating a tiny library with it always returning true. On GNU/Linux systems, you do that using LD_PRELOAD. Perhaps someone's already done that so you just need to download, compile and set it. Sorry for the lack of specifics, but I do not deal with these libraries, yet I was still hoping to point you in the right direction.