environ(5) environ(5)
NAME
environ - user environment
DESCRIPTION
When a process begins execution, exec routines make available
an array of strings called the environment [see exec(2)]. By
convention, these strings have the form variable=value, for
example, PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin. These environmental variables
provide a way to make information about a program's
environment available to programs. The environmental
variables described below can be used by applications and are
expected to be set in the target runtime environment.
Further names may be placed in the environment by the export
command and name=value arguments in sh(1), or by exec(2). It
is unwise to conflict with certain shell variables that are
frequently exported by .profile files: MAIL, PS1, PS2, IFS
[see profile(4)].
HOME
The name of the user's login directory, set by login(1) from
the password file [see passwd(4)].
LANG
The program's locale. Locales consist of files that describe
the conventions appropriate to some nationality, culture, and
language. Generally, users determine which files are selected
by manipulating the environment variables described below.
For background, see setlocale(3C).
Locales are partitioned into categories LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE,
LC_MESSAGES, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, and LC_TIME (see below
for what the categories control). LC_ALL overrides all these
categories. Each category has a corresponding environment
variable that the user can set to specify that category's
locale:
LC_CTYPE=fr[ancais]
When the LC_ALL variable is set, it overrides all other LC_
variables, as well as the LANG setting. When LC_ALL is not
set, the LANG environment variable is searched if the
environment variable for a category is unset or empty:
LANG=fr
LC_COLLATE=de[utsche]
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 1
environ(5) environ(5)
sets all the categories but LC_COLLATE to French. If LANG is
unset or empty, the default C locale is used.
LC_ALL specifies the name of the locale to be used.
This value overrides values for locale
categories specified by the LANG setting or any
other LC_ category environment variable.
LC_COLLATE specifies the collation order used. The
information for this category is stored in a
database created by the colltbl(1M) command.
This environment variable affects sort(1),
strcoll(3C), and strxfrm(3C).
LC_CTYPE specifies character classification, character
conversion, and widths of multibyte characters.
The information for this category is stored in
a database created by the chrtbl(1M) or
wchrtbl(1M) commands. The default C locale
uses the 7-bit US ASCII character set. This
environment variable affects many commands and
functions, among them, cat(1), ed(1), ls(1),
vi(1), ctype(3C), and mbchar(3C).
LC_MESSAGES specifies the message database used. A command
or application may have French and German
message databases, for example. Message
databases are created by the mkmsgs(1) or
gencat(1) commands. This environment variable
affects gettxt(1), srchtxt(1), catgets(3C), and
gettxt(3C), and every command that generates
locale-specific output messages.
LC_MONETARY specifies the monetary symbols and delimiters
used. The information for this category is
stored in a database created by the montbl(1M)
command. This environment variable affects
localeconv(3C).
LC_NUMERIC specifies the decimal and thousands delimiters.
The information for this category is stored in
a database created by the chrtbl(1M) or
wchrtbl(1M) commands. The default C locale
uses a period (.) as the decimal delimiter and
no thousands delimiter. This environment
variable affects localeconv(3C), printf [see
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 2
environ(5) environ(5)
fprintf(3S)], scanf [see fscanf(3S)], and
strtod(3C).
LC_TIME specifies date and time formats. The
information for this category is stored in a
database specified in strftime(4). The default
C locale uses US date and time formats. This
environment variable affects many commands and
functions, among them, at(1), calendar(1),
date(1), getdate(3C), and strftime(3C).
MSGVERB
Controls which standard format message components fmtmsg
selects when messages are displayed to stderr [see fmtmsg(1)
and fmtmsg(3C)].
SEV_LEVEL
Defines severity levels and associates and prints strings with
them in standard format error messages [see addseverity(3C),
fmtmsg(1), and fmtmsg(3C)].
NETPATH
A colon-separated list of network identifiers. A network
identifier is a character string used by the Network Selection
component of the system to provide application-specific
default network search paths. A network identifier must
consist of non-NULL characters and must have a length of at
least 1. No maximum length is specified. Network identifiers
are normally chosen by the system administrator. A network
identifier is also the first field in any /etc/netconfig file
entry. NETPATH thus provides a link into the /etc/netconfig
file and the information about a network contained in that
network's entry. /etc/netconfig is maintained by the system
administrator. The library routines described in
getnetpath(3N) access the NETPATH environment variable.
NLSPATH
Contains a sequence of templates which catopen(3C) uses when
attempting to locate message catalogs. Each template consists
of a pathname containing one or more optional substitution
fields.
For example:
NLSPATH="/system/nlslib/%N.cat"
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 3
environ(5) environ(5)
specifies that catopen should look for all message catalogs in
the directory /system/nlslib, where the catalog name should be
constructed from the name parameter passed to catopen, %N,
with the suffix .cat.
Substitution fields consist of a % symbol, followed by a
single-letter keyword. The following keywords are currently
defined (where locale elements are described below):
%N The value of the name parameter passed to catopen.
%L The value of locale.
%l The language element from locale.
%t The territory element from locale.
%c The codeset element from locale.
%% A single % character.
locale provides the ability to specify the user's requirements
for native language, local customs, and character set, as an
ASCII string in the form
language[_territory[.codeset]]
A user who speaks German as it is spoken in Austria and has a
terminal which operates in ISO 8859/1 codeset, would want the
setting of the locale to be
De_A.88591
An empty string is substituted if the specified value is not
currently defined. The separators ``_'' and ``.'' are not
included in %t and %c substitutions.
Templates defined in NLSPATH are separated by colons (:). A
leading colon or two adjacent colons (::) is equivalent to
specifying %N.
For example:
NLSPATH=":%N.cat:/nlslib/%L/%N.cat"
indicates to catopen that it should look for the requested
message catalog in name, name.cat, and
/nlslib/locale/name.cat.
For information on setting up a locale, see setlocale(3C).
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 4
environ(5) environ(5)
PATH
The sequence of directory prefixes that sh(1), time(1),
nice(1), nohup(1), and so on apply in searching for a file
known by an incomplete path name. The prefixes are separated
by colons (:). login(1) sets PATH=/usr/bin. [For more
detail, see sh(1).]
SHELL
When the shell is invoked, it scans the environment for this
name. If it is found and rsh is the filename part of its
value, the shell becomes a restricted shell. The value of
this variable should be specified with an absolute pathname.
The variable is used by make(1), ksh(1), sh(1), and vi(1),
among other commands.
TERM
The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared. This
information is used by commands, such as vi(1), which may
exploit special capabilities of that terminal.
TZ
Time zone information. The contents of the environment
variable named TZ are used by the functions ctime(3C),
localtime [see ctime(3C)], strftime(3C), and mktime(3C) to
override the default time zone. If the first character of TZ
is a colon (:), the behavior is implementation-defined,
otherwise TZ has the form:
stdoffset[dst[offset],[start[/time],end[/time]]]
std and dst
Three or more bytes that are the designation for
the standard (std) and daylight savings time (dst)
time zones. Only std is required, if dst is
missing, then daylight savings time does not apply
in this locale. Upper- and lowercase letters are
allowed. Any characters except a leading colon
(:), digits, a comma (,), a minus (-), or a plus
(+) are allowed.
offset
Indicates the value one must add to the local time
to arrive at Coordinated Universal Time. The
offset has the form:
hh[:mm[:ss]]
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 5
environ(5) environ(5)
The minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) are optional.
The hour (hh) is required and may be a single
digit. The offset following std is required. If
no offset follows dst , daylight savings time is
assumed to be one hour ahead of standard time.
One or more digits may be used; the value is
always interpreted as a decimal number. The hour
must be between 0 and 24, and the minutes (and
seconds) if present between 0 and 59. Out of
range values may cause unpredictable behavior. If
preceded by a ``-'', the time zone is east of the
Prime Meridian; otherwise it is west (which may be
indicated by an optional preceding ``+'' sign).
start/time,end/time
Indicates when to change to and back from daylight
savings time, where start/time describes when the
change from standard time to daylight savings time
occurs, and end/time describes when the change
back happens. Each time field describes when, in
current local time, the change is made.
The formats of start and end are one of the
following:
Jn The Julian day n (1 < n < 365). Leap days
are not counted. That is, in all years,
February 28 is day 59 and March 1 is day 60.
It is impossible to refer to the occasional
February 29.
n The zero-based Julian day (0 < n < 365).
Leap days are counted, and it is possible to
refer to February 29.
Mm.n.d
The dth day, (0 < d < 6) of week n of month m
of the year (1 < n < 5, 1 < m < 12), where
week 5 means ``the last d-day in month m''
which may occur in either the fourth or the
fifth week). Week 1 is the first week in
which the dth day occurs. Day zero is
Sunday.
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 6
environ(5) environ(5)
Implementation-specific defaults are used for
start and end if these optional fields are not
given.
The time has the same format as offset except that
no leading sign (``-'' or ``+'') is allowed. The
default, if time is not given is 02:00:00.
REFERENCES
addseverity(3C), cat(1), catgets(3C), catopen(3C), chrtbl(1M),
colltbl(1M), ctime(3C), ctype(3C), date(1), ed(1), exec(2),
fmtmsg(1), fmtmsg(3C), fprintf(3S), fscanf(3S), gencat(1),
getdate(3C), getnetpath(3N), gettxt(1), gettxt(3C),
localeconv(3C), login(1), ls(1), mbchar(3C), mkmsgs(1),
mktime(3C), montbl(1M), netconfig(4), nice(1), nohup(1),
passwd(4), profile(4), setlocale(3C), sh(1), sort(1),
srchtxt(1), strcoll(3C), strftime(3C), strftime(4),
strtod(3C), strxfrm(3C), time(1), timezone(4), vi(1),
wchrtbl(1M)
Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc. Page 7