xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man7/environ.7 (revision 1ffa7b76c40339c17a0fb2a09fac93f287cfc046)
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34.\"	@(#)environ.7	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
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36.Dd April 2, 2003
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 LIBC_DIAGASSERT
54.It Ev AUDIOCTLDEVICE
55The name of the audio control device to be used by
56.Xr audioctl 1 ,
57.Xr audioplay 1
58and
59.Xr audiorecord 1 .
60.It Ev AUDIODEVICE
61The name of the audio device to be used by
62.Xr audioplay 1
63and
64.Xr audiorecord 1 .
65.It Ev BLOCKSIZE
66The size of the block units used by several commands, most notably
67.Xr df 1 ,
68.Xr du 1
69and
70.Xr ls 1 .
71.Ev BLOCKSIZE
72may be specified in units of a byte by specifying a number,
73in units of a kilobyte by specifying a number followed by
74.Dq K
75or
76.Dq k ,
77in units of a megabyte by specifying a number followed by
78.Dq M
79or
80.Dq m
81and in units of a gigabyte by specifying a number followed
82by
83.Dq G
84or
85.Dq g .
86Sizes less than 512 bytes or greater than a gigabyte are ignored.
87.It Ev EXINIT
88A startup list of commands read by
89.Xr ex 1
90and
91.Xr vi 1 .
92.It Ev HOME
93A user's login directory, set by
94.Xr login 1
95from the password file
96.Xr passwd 5 .
97.It Ev LIBC_DIAGASSERT
98Control how the
99.Fn _DIAGASSERT
100macro (from
101.Pa \*[Lt]assert.h\*[Gt] )
102behaves once the assertion is raised.
103Refer to
104.Xr _DIAGASSERT 3
105for more information.
106.It Ev MALLOC_OPTIONS
107Control the behaviour of the
108.Fn malloc
109function.
110Refer to
111.Xr malloc 3
112for more information.
113.It Ev MIXERDEVICE
114The name of the audio mixer device to be used by
115.Xr mixerctl 1 .
116.It Ev PAGER
117The program used for paginating the output of several commands
118such as
119.Xr man 1 .
120If null or not set, the standard pagination program
121.Xr more 1
122will be used.
123.It Ev PATH
124The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
125.Xr csh 1 ,
126.Xr sh 1 ,
127.Xr system 3 ,
128.Xr execvp 3 ,
129etc, when looking for an executable file.
130PATH is set to
131.Dq /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/local/bin
132initially by
133.Xr login 1 .
134.It Ev PRINTER
135The name of the default printer to be used by
136.Xr lpr 1 ,
137.Xr lpq 1 ,
138and
139.Xr lprm 1 .
140.It Ev SHELL
141The full pathname of the user's login shell.
142.It Ev TERM
143The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.
144This information is used by commands, such as
145.Xr nroff 1
146.\" or
147.\" .Xr plot 1
148which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
149See
150.Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap
151.Pq Xr termcap 5
152for a list of terminal types.
153.It Ev TERMCAP
154The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if
155it begins with a '/', the name of the termcap file.
156See
157.Ev TERMPATH
158below,
159.Xr termcap 5 ,
160and
161.Xr termcap 3 .
162.It Ev TERMPATH
163A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons or spaces,
164which are searched for terminal descriptions in the order listed.
165Having no
166.Ev TERMPATH
167is equivalent to a
168.Ev TERMPATH
169of
170.Dq Pa $HOME/.termcap:/usr/share/misc/termcap .
171.Ev TERMPATH
172is ignored if
173.Ev TERMCAP
174contains a full pathname.
175.It Ev TIMEFORMAT
176A
177.Xr strftime 3
178format string that may be used by programs such as
179.Xr dump 8
180for formatting timestamps.
181.It Ev TMPDIR
182The directory in which to store temporary files.
183Most applications use either
184.Pa /tmp
185or
186.Pa /var/tmp .
187Setting this variable will make them use another directory.
188.It Ev TZ
189The timezone to use when displaying dates.
190The normal format is a pathname relative to
191.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo .
192For example, the command
193.Ic env TZ=US/Pacific date
194displays the current time in California.
195See
196.Xr tzset 3
197for more information.
198.It Ev USER
199The login name of the user.
200.El
201.Pp
202Further names may be placed in the environment by the
203.Ic export
204command and
205.Ar name=value
206arguments in
207.Xr sh 1 ,
208or by the
209.Ic setenv
210command if you use
211.Xr csh 1 .
212It is unwise to change certain
213.Xr sh 1
214variables that are frequently exported by
215.Pa .profile
216files, such as
217.Ev MAIL ,
218.Ev PS1 ,
219.Ev PS2 ,
220and
221.Ev IFS ,
222unless you know what you are doing.
223.Sh SEE ALSO
224.Xr audioctl 1 ,
225.Xr audioplay 1 ,
226.Xr audiorecord 1 ,
227.Xr csh 1 ,
228.Xr ex 1 ,
229.Xr login 1 ,
230.Xr man 1 ,
231.Xr more 1 ,
232.Xr sh 1 ,
233.Xr execve 2 ,
234.Xr _DIAGASSERT 3 ,
235.Xr execle 3 ,
236.Xr malloc 3 ,
237.Xr system 3 ,
238.Xr termcap 3 ,
239.Xr audio 4 ,
240.Xr termcap 5 ,
241.Xr dump 8
242.Sh HISTORY
243The
244.Nm
245manual page appeared in
246.Bx 4.2 .
247