xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man7/environ.7 (revision bada23909e740596d0a3785a73bd3583a9807fb8)
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34.\"	@(#)environ.7	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
35.\"
36.Dd April 19, 1994
37.Dt ENVIRON 7
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm environ
41.Nd user process environment
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Ar extern char **environ ;
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45An array of strings called the
46.Em environment
47is made available by
48.Xr execve 2
49when a process begins.
50By convention these strings have the form
51.Dq Ar name=value .
52The following names are used by various commands:
53.Bl -tag -width BLOCKSIZE
54.It Ev BLOCKSIZE
55The size of the block units used by several commands, most notably
56.Xr df 1 ,
57.Xr du 1
58and
59.Xr ls 1 .
60.Ev BLOCKSIZE
61may be specified in units of a byte by specifying a number,
62in units of a kilobyte by specifying a number followed by ``K'' or
63``k'', in units of a megabyte by specifying a number followed by ``M''
64or ``m'' and in units of a gigabyte by specifying a number followed
65by ``G'' or ``g''.
66Sizes less than 512 bytes or greater than a gigabyte are ignored.
67.It Ev EXINIT
68A startup list of commands read by
69.Xr ex 1
70and
71.Xr vi 1 .
72.It Ev HOME
73A user's login directory, set by
74.Xr login 1
75from the password file
76.Xr passwd 5 .
77.It Ev PATH
78The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
79.Xr csh 1 ,
80.Xr sh 1 ,
81.Xr system 3 ,
82.Xr execvp 3 ,
83etc, when looking for an executable file.
84PATH is set to ``/usr/bin:/bin'' initially by
85.Xr login 1 .
86.It Ev PRINTER
87The name of the default printer to be used by
88.Xr lpr 1 ,
89.Xr lpq 1 ,
90and
91.Xr lprm 1 .
92.It Ev SHELL
93The full pathname of the user's login shell.
94.It Ev TERM
95The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.
96This information is used by commands, such as
97.Xr nroff 1
98or
99.Xr plot 1
100which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
101See
102.Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap
103.Pq Xr termcap 5
104for a list of terminal types.
105.It Ev TERMCAP
106The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if
107it begins with a '/', the name of the termcap file.
108See
109.Ev TERMPATH
110below,
111.Xr termcap 5 ,
112and
113.Xr termcap 3 .
114.It Ev TERMPATH
115A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons or spaces,
116which are searched for terminal descriptions in the order listed.
117Having no
118.Ev TERMPATH
119is equivalent to a
120.Ev TERMPATH
121of
122.Dq Pa $HOME/.termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap .
123.Ev TERMPATH
124is ignored if
125.Ev TERMCAP
126contains a full pathname.
127.It Ev TMPDIR
128The directory in which to store temporary files.
129Most applications use either
130.Pa /tmp
131or
132.Pa /var/tmp .
133Setting this variable will make them use another directory.
134.It Ev TZ
135The timezone to use when displaying dates.
136The normal format is a pathname relative to
137.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo .
138For example, the command
139.Ic env TZ=US/Pacific date
140displays the current time in California.
141See
142.Xr tzset 3
143for more information.
144.It Ev USER
145The login name of the user.
146.El
147.Pp
148Further names may be placed in the environment by the
149.Ic export
150command and
151.Ar name=value
152arguments in
153.Xr sh 1 ,
154or by the
155.Ic setenv
156command if you use
157.Xr csh 1 .
158It is unwise to change certain
159.Xr sh 1
160variables that are frequently exported by
161.Pa .profile
162files, such as
163.Ev MAIL ,
164.Ev PS1 ,
165.Ev PS2 ,
166and
167.Ev IFS ,
168unless you know what you are doing.
169.Sh SEE ALSO
170.Xr csh 1 ,
171.Xr ex 1 ,
172.Xr login 1 ,
173.Xr sh 1 ,
174.Xr execve 2 ,
175.Xr execle 3 ,
176.Xr system 3 ,
177.Xr termcap 3 ,
178.Xr termcap 5
179.Sh HISTORY
180The
181.Nm
182manual page appeared in
183.Bx 4.2 .
184