ENVIRON(7) BSD Reference Manual ENVIRON(7)
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 variables are recognized by various com-
mands:
BLOCKSIZE The size of the block units used by several commands, most
notably df(1), du(1), and ls(1). May be specified in units of
a byte by specifying a number, in units of a kilobyte by
specifying a number followed by 'K' or 'k', in units of a
megabyte by specifying a number followed by 'M' or 'm', or in
units of a gigabyte by specifying a number followed by 'G' or
'g'. Sizes less than 512 bytes or greater than a gigabyte are
ignored.
EXINIT A list of startup commands read by ex(1) and vi(1).
HOME The user's login directory, set by login(1) from the password
file passwd(5).
LOGNAME The login name of the user.
PATH The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
csh(1), sh(1), ksh(1), system(3), execvp(3), etc. when looking
for an executable file. Initially set to the value of
_PATH_DEFPATH by login(1), traditionally /usr/bin:/bin, but
expanded to include /usr/sbin, /sbin, /usr/X11R6/bin, and
/usr/local/bin in OpenBSD.
PRINTER The name of the default printer to be used by lpq(1), lpr(1),
and lprm(1).
PWD The current working directory.
SHELL The full pathname of the user's login shell.
TERM The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared. This
information is used by commands such as nroff(1) which may ex-
ploit special terminal capabilities. See
/usr/share/misc/termcap (termcap(5)) for a list of terminal
types.
TERMCAP The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if it begins
with a '/', the name of the termcap file. See TERMPATH below,
termcap(5), and termcap(3).
TERMPATH A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons
or spaces, which are searched for terminal descriptions in the
order listed. Having no TERMPATH is equivalent to a TERMPATH
of $HOME/.termcap:/etc/termcap. TERMPATH is ignored if TERMCAP
contains a full pathname.
TMPDIR The directory in which to store temporary files. Most applica-
tions use either /tmp or /var/tmp. Setting this variable will
make them use another directory.
TZ The timezone to use when displaying dates. The normal format
is a pathname relative to /usr/share/zoneinfo. For example,
the command env TZ=US/Pacific date displays the current time
in California. See tzset(3) for more information.
USER Deprecated synonym of LOGNAME (for backwards compatibility).
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). It is unwise to change certain sh(1) variables that are frequent-
ly exported by .profile files, such as MAIL, PS1, PS2, and IFS, unless
you know what you are doing.
SEE ALSO
csh(1), env(1), ex(1), login(1), sh(1), execve(2), execle(3), getenv(3),
system(3), termcap(3), tzset(3), termcap(5)
HISTORY
The environ manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.
MirBSD #10-current April 19, 1994 1