Setting an environment variable before a command in Bash is not working for the second command in a pipe

FOO=bar bash -c 'somecommand someargs | somecommand2'

How about exporting the variable, but only inside the subshell?:

(export FOO=bar && somecommand someargs | somecommand2)

Keith has a point, to unconditionally execute the commands, do this:

(export FOO=bar; somecommand someargs | somecommand2)

You can also use eval:

FOO=bar eval 'somecommand someargs | somecommand2'

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Since this answer with eval doesn't seem to please everyone, let me clarify something: when used as written, with the single quotes, it is perfectly safe. It is good as it will not launch an external process (like the accepted answer) nor will it execute the commands in an extra subshell (like the other answer).

As we get a few regular views, it's probably good to give an alternative to eval that will please everyone, and has all the benefits (and perhaps even more!) of this quick eval “trick”. Just use a function! Define a function with all your commands:

mypipe() {
    somecommand someargs | somecommand2
}

and execute it with your environment variables like this:

FOO=bar mypipe