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:

PATH The sequence of directory prefixes that sh, time, nice(1), etc., apply in searching for a file known by an incomplete path name. The prefixes are separated by colons (:).  The login(1) process sets PATH=:/usr/ucb:/bin:/usr/bin. 

HOME The name of the user’s login directory, set by login(1) from the password file /etc/passwd (see passwd(5)).

TERM The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.  This information is used by commands, such as nroff or plot(1G), which may exploit special terminal capabilities.  See /etc/termcap (termcap(5)) for a list of terminal types.

SHELL The file name of the user’s login shell. 

TERMCAP The string describing the terminal in TERM, or the name of the termcap file, see termcap(3),termcap(5),

EXINIT A startup list of commands read by ex(1), edit(1), and vi(1).

USER

LOGNAME 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). Arguments may also be placed in the environment at the point of an execve(2). It is unwise to conflict with certain sh(1) variables that are frequently exported by .profile files: MAIL, PS1, PS2, IFS. 

SYSTEM V DESCRIPTION

The description of the variable TERMCAP does not apply to the System V environment. 

TZ Time zone information. The format is xxxnzzz where xxx is standard local time zone abbreviation, n is the difference in hours from GMT, and zzz is the abbreviation for the daylight-saving local time zone, if any; for example, EST5EDT. 

SEE ALSO

csh(1), ex(1), login(1), sh(1), getenv(3), execve(2), system(3), termcap(3X), termcap(5)

Sun Release 3.2  —  Last change: 1 May 1986