ENVIRON
Section: Environments, Tables, and Troff Macros (7)
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BSD mandoc
BSD 4.2
NAME
environ
- user environment
SYNOPSIS
extern char **environ
DESCRIPTION
An array of strings called the
environment
is made available by
execve(2)
when a process begins. By convention these strings have the form
``name=value
''
The following names are used by various commands:
- EXINIT
-
A startup list of commands read by
ex(1),
edit(1),
and
vi(1).
- HOME
-
A user's login directory, set by
login(1)
from the password file
passwd(5).
- PATH
-
The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
csh(1),
sh(1),
system(3),
execvp(3),
etc, when looking for an executable file.
PATH is set to ``:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin'' initially by
login(1).
- PRINTER
-
The name of the default printer to be used by
lpr(1),
lpq(1),
and
lprm(1).
- SHELL
-
The full pathname of the user's login shell.
- TERM
-
The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.
This information is used by commands, such as
nroff(1)
or
plot(1)
which may exploit special terminal capabilities. See
/usr/share/misc/termcap
(tmercap(5)
)
for a list of terminal types.
- TERMCAP
-
The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if
it begins with a '/', the name of the termcap file.
See
TERMPATH
below,
termcap(5),
and
termcap.
- TERMPATH
-
A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons or spaces,
which are searched for terminal descriptions in the order listed. Having
no
TERMPATH
is equivalent to a
TERMPATH
of
``$HOME/.termcap:/etc/termcap
''
TERMPATH
is ignored if
TERMCAP
contains a full pathname.
- USER
-
The login name of the user.
Further names may be placed in the environment by the
export
command and
name=value
arguments in
sh(1),
or by the
setenv
command if you use
csh(1).
It is unwise to change certain
sh(1)
variables that are frequently exported by
.profile
files, such as
MAIL
PS1
PS2
and
IFS
unless you know what you are doing.
SEE ALSO
csh(1),
ex(1),
login(1),
sh(1),
execve(2),
execle(3),
system(3),
termcap(3),
termcap(5)
HISTORY
The
environ
manual page appeared in
BSD 4.2
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- HISTORY
-
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Time: 06:48:13 GMT, May 19, 2025