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What Are Environment Variables?: Variable Description

Environment variables govern the behavior of programs in an operating system. Some common environment variables include PATH, USER, HOME, EDITOR, UID, TERM, and SHELL. The values of environment variables can be accessed using echo $VARIABLE and all variables can be displayed using the env command. New variables can be created with VARIABLE_NAME=variable_value and variables can be deleted with unset variablename. The putenv() and getenv() functions allow adding, changing, and retrieving environment variable values.

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121 views4 pages

What Are Environment Variables?: Variable Description

Environment variables govern the behavior of programs in an operating system. Some common environment variables include PATH, USER, HOME, EDITOR, UID, TERM, and SHELL. The values of environment variables can be accessed using echo $VARIABLE and all variables can be displayed using the env command. New variables can be created with VARIABLE_NAME=variable_value and variables can be deleted with unset variablename. The putenv() and getenv() functions allow adding, changing, and retrieving environment variable values.

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Manohar Datt
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What are Environment variables?

Environment variables are dynamic values which affect the processes


or programs on a computer. They exist in every operating system, but
types may vary. Environment variables can be created, edited, saved,
and deleted and give information about the system behavior.

Environment variables can change the way a software/programs


behave.

E.g. $LANG environment variable stores the value of the language that the user
understands. This value is read by an application

Let's study some common environment variables -

Variable Description
This variable contains a colon (:)-separated list of
directories in which your system looks for executable files.

PATH When you enter a command on terminal, the shell looks


for the command in different directories mentioned in the
$PATH variable. If the command is found, it executes.
Otherwise, it returns with an error 'command not found'.
USER The username
HOME Default path to the user's home directory
EDITOR Path to the program which edits the content of files
UID User's unique ID
TERM Default terminal emulator
SHELL Shell being used by the user
Accessing Variable values
In order to determine value of a variable, use the command
echo $VARIABLE

The 'env' command displays all the environment variables.

Set New Environment Variables


You can create your own user defined variable, with syntax
VARIABLE_NAME= variable_value

Deleting Variables
The following syntax can be used to remove a Variable from the
system.
unset variablename
Summary:

 Environment variables govern the behavior of programs in your Operating System.

Command Description

echo $VARIABLE To display value of a variable

env Displays all environment variables

VARIABLE_NAME= variable_value Create a new variable

unset   Remove a variable

export Variable=value To set value of an environment variable

putenv - change or add an environment variable

int putenv(char *string);

The putenv() function adds or changes the value of environment


variables. The argument string is of the form
name=value. If name
does not already exist in the environment, then string
is added to
the environment. If name does exist, then the value of
name in the
environment is changed to value.

getenv - get an environment variable

char *getenv(const char *name);


The getenv() function searches the environment list to find
the
environment variable name, and returns a pointer to the
corresponding value string.

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