xref: /openbsd-src/share/man/man7/environ.7 (revision 3a3fbb3f2e2521ab7c4a56b7ff7462ebd9095ec5)
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35.\"	@(#)environ.7	8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
36.\"
37.Dd April 19, 1994
38.Dt ENVIRON 7
39.Os
40.Sh NAME
41.Nm environ
42.Nd user environment
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Ar extern char **environ ;
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46An array of strings called the
47.Dq environment
48is made available by
49.Xr execve 2
50when a process begins.
51By convention these strings have the form
52.Ar name Ns No = Ns Ar value .
53The following variables are recognized by various commands:
54.Bl -tag -width BLOCKSIZE
55.It Ev BLOCKSIZE
56The size of the block units used by several commands, most notably
57.Xr df 1 ,
58.Xr du 1 ,
59and
60.Xr ls 1 .
61May be specified in units of a byte by specifying a number,
62in units of a kilobyte by specifying a number followed by
63.Sq K
64or
65.Sq k ,
66in units of a megabyte by specifying a number followed by
67.Sq M
68or
69.Sq m ,
70or in units of a gigabyte by specifying a number followed
71by
72.Sq G
73or
74.Sq g .
75Sizes less than 512 bytes or greater than a gigabyte are ignored.
76.It Ev EXINIT
77A list of startup commands read by
78.Xr ex 1
79and
80.Xr vi 1 .
81.It Ev HOME
82The user's login directory, set by
83.Xr login 1
84from the password file
85.Xr passwd 5 .
86.It Ev LOGNAME
87The login name of the user.
88.It Ev PATH
89The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
90.Xr csh 1 ,
91.Xr sh 1 ,
92.Xr ksh 1 ,
93.Xr system 3 ,
94.Xr execvp 3 ,
95etc. when looking for an executable file.
96Initially set to the value of
97.Dv _PATH_DEFPATH
98by
99.Xr login 1 ,
100traditionally
101.Pa /usr/bin:/bin ,
102but expanded to include
103.Pa /usr/sbin ,
104.Pa /sbin ,
105.Pa /usr/X11R6/bin ,
106and
107.Pa /usr/local/bin
108in
109.Ox .
110.It Ev PRINTER
111The name of the default printer to be used by
112.Xr lpq 1 ,
113.Xr lpr 1 ,
114and
115.Xr lprm 1 .
116.It Ev PWD
117The current working directory.
118.It Ev SHELL
119The full pathname of the user's login shell.
120.It Ev TERM
121The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.
122This information is used by commands such as
123.Xr nroff 1
124which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
125See
126.Pa /usr/share/misc/termcap
127.Pq Xr termcap 5
128for a list of terminal types.
129.It Ev TERMCAP
130The string describing the terminal in
131.Ev TERM ,
132or, if it begins with a
133.Ql / ,
134the name of the termcap file.
135See
136.Ev TERMPATH
137below,
138.Xr termcap 5 ,
139and
140.Xr termcap 3 .
141.It Ev TERMPATH
142A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons or spaces,
143which are searched for terminal descriptions in the order listed.
144Having no
145.Ev TERMPATH
146is equivalent to a
147.Ev TERMPATH
148of
149.Pa $HOME/.termcap:/etc/termcap .
150.Ev TERMPATH
151is ignored if
152.Ev TERMCAP
153contains a full pathname.
154.It Ev TMPDIR
155The directory in which to store temporary files.
156Most applications use either
157.Pa /tmp
158or
159.Pa /var/tmp .
160Setting this variable will make them use another directory.
161.It Ev TZ
162The timezone to use when displaying dates.
163The normal format is a pathname relative to
164.Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo .
165For example, the command
166.Ic env TZ=US/Pacific date
167displays the current time in California.
168See
169.Xr tzset 3
170for more information.
171.It Ev USER
172Deprecated synonym of
173.Ev LOGNAME
174(for backwards compatibility).
175.El
176.Pp
177Further names may be placed in the environment by the
178.Ic export
179command and
180.Ar name Ns No = Ns Ar value
181arguments in
182.Xr sh 1 ,
183or by the
184.Ic setenv
185command if you use
186.Xr csh 1 .
187It is unwise to change certain
188.Xr sh 1
189variables that are frequently exported by
190.Pa .profile
191files, such as
192.Ev MAIL ,
193.Ev PS1 ,
194.Ev PS2 ,
195and
196.Ev IFS ,
197unless you know what you are doing.
198.Sh SEE ALSO
199.Xr csh 1 ,
200.Xr env 1 ,
201.Xr ex 1 ,
202.Xr login 1 ,
203.Xr sh 1 ,
204.Xr execve 2 ,
205.Xr execle 3 ,
206.Xr system 3 ,
207.Xr termcap 3 ,
208.Xr tzset 3 ,
209.Xr termcap 5
210.Sh HISTORY
211The
212.Nm
213manual page appeared in
214.Bx 4.2 .
215