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author | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-24 04:52:22 +0000 |
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committer | Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org> | 2024-05-24 04:52:22 +0000 |
commit | 3d08cd331c1adcf0d917392f7e527b3f00511748 (patch) | |
tree | 312f0d1e1632f48862f044b8bb87e602dcffb5f9 /man/man7/environ.7 | |
parent | Adding debian version 6.7-2. (diff) | |
download | manpages-3d08cd331c1adcf0d917392f7e527b3f00511748.tar.xz manpages-3d08cd331c1adcf0d917392f7e527b3f00511748.zip |
Merging upstream version 6.8.
Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'man/man7/environ.7')
-rw-r--r-- | man/man7/environ.7 | 354 |
1 files changed, 354 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/man/man7/environ.7 b/man/man7/environ.7 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..86be682 --- /dev/null +++ b/man/man7/environ.7 @@ -0,0 +1,354 @@ +.\" Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Haardt (michael@moria.de), +.\" Fri Apr 2 11:32:09 MET DST 1993 +.\" and Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl), Fri Feb 14 21:47:50 1997. +.\" +.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later +.\" +.\" Modified Sun Jul 25 10:45:30 1993 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu) +.\" Modified Sun Jul 21 21:25:26 1996 by Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl) +.\" Modified Mon Oct 21 17:47:19 1996 by Eric S. Raymond (esr@thyrsus.com) +.\" Modified Wed Aug 27 20:28:58 1997 by Nicolás Lichtmaier (nick@debian.org) +.\" Modified Mon Sep 21 00:00:26 1998 by Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl) +.\" Modified Wed Jan 24 06:37:24 2001 by Eric S. Raymond (esr@thyrsus.com) +.\" Modified Thu Dec 13 23:53:27 2001 by Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org> +.\" +.TH environ 7 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages (unreleased)" +.SH NAME +environ \- user environment +.SH SYNOPSIS +.nf +.BI "extern char **" environ ; +.fi +.SH DESCRIPTION +The variable +.I environ +points to an array of pointers to strings called the "environment". +The last pointer in this array has the value NULL. +This array of strings is made available to the process by the +.BR execve (2) +call when a new program is started. +When a child process is created via +.BR fork (2), +it inherits a +.I copy +of its parent's environment. +.P +By convention, the strings in +.I environ +have the form "\fIname\fP\fB=\fP\fIvalue\fP". +The name is case-sensitive and may not contain +the character "\fB=\fP". +The value can be anything that can be represented as a string. +The name and the value may not contain an embedded null byte (\[aq]\e0\[aq]), +since this is assumed to terminate the string. +.P +Environment variables may be placed in the shell's environment by the +.I export +command in +.BR sh (1), +or by the +.I setenv +command if you use +.BR csh (1). +.P +The initial environment of the shell is populated in various ways, +such as definitions from +.I /etc/environment +that are processed by +.BR pam_env (8) +for all users at login time (on systems that employ +.BR pam (8)). +In addition, various shell initialization scripts, such as the system-wide +.I /etc/profile +script and per-user initializations script may include commands +that add variables to the shell's environment; +see the manual page of your preferred shell for details. +.P +Bourne-style shells support the syntax +.P +.in +4n +.EX +NAME=value command +.EE +.in +.P +to create an environment variable definition only in the scope +of the process that executes +.IR command . +Multiple variable definitions, separated by white space, may precede +.IR command . +.P +Arguments may also be placed in the +environment at the point of an +.BR exec (3). +A C program can manipulate its environment using the functions +.BR getenv (3), +.BR putenv (3), +.BR setenv (3), +and +.BR unsetenv (3). +.P +What follows is a list of environment variables typically seen on a +system. +This list is incomplete and includes only common variables seen +by average users in their day-to-day routine. +Environment variables specific to a particular program or library function +are documented in the ENVIRONMENT section of the appropriate manual page. +.TP +.B USER +The name of the logged-in user (used by some BSD-derived programs). +Set at login time, see section NOTES below. +.TP +.B LOGNAME +The name of the logged-in user (used by some System-V derived programs). +Set at login time, see section NOTES below. +.TP +.B HOME +A user's login directory. +Set at login time, see section NOTES below. +.TP +.B LANG +The name of a locale to use for locale categories when not overridden +by +.B LC_ALL +or more specific environment variables such as +.BR LC_COLLATE , +.BR LC_CTYPE , +.BR LC_MESSAGES , +.BR LC_MONETARY , +.BR LC_NUMERIC , +and +.B LC_TIME +(see +.BR locale (7) +for further details of the +.B LC_* +environment variables). +.TP +.B PATH +The sequence of directory prefixes that +.BR sh (1) +and many other +programs employ when searching for an executable file that is specified +as a simple filename (i.a., a pathname that contains no slashes). +The prefixes are separated by colons (\fB:\fP). +The list of prefixes is searched from beginning to end, +by checking the pathname formed by concatenating +a prefix, a slash, and the filename, +until a file with execute permission is found. +.IP +As a legacy feature, a zero-length prefix +(specified as two adjacent colons, or an initial or terminating colon) +is interpreted to mean the current working directory. +However, use of this feature is deprecated, +and POSIX notes that a conforming application shall use +an explicit pathname (e.g., +.IR . ) +to specify the current working directory. +.IP +Analogously to +.BR PATH , +one has +.B CDPATH +used by some shells to find the target +of a change directory command, +.B MANPATH +used by +.BR man (1) +to find manual pages, and so on. +.TP +.B PWD +Absolute path to the current working directory; +required to be partially canonical (no +.I .\& +or +.I ..\& +components). +.TP +.B SHELL +The absolute pathname of the user's login shell. +Set at login time, see section NOTES below. +.TP +.B TERM +The terminal type for which output is to be prepared. +.TP +.B PAGER +The user's preferred utility to display text files. +Any string acceptable as a command-string operand to the +.I sh\ \-c +command shall be valid. +If +.B PAGER +is null or is not set, +then applications that launch a pager will default to a program such as +.BR less (1) +or +.BR more (1). +.TP +.BR EDITOR / VISUAL +The user's preferred utility to edit text files. +Any string acceptable as a command_string operand to the +.I sh\ \-c +command shall be valid. +.\" .TP +.\" .B BROWSER +.\" The user's preferred utility to browse URLs. Sequence of colon-separated +.\" browser commands. See http://www.catb.org/\[ti]esr/BROWSER/ . +.P +Note that the behavior of many programs and library routines is +influenced by the presence or value of certain environment variables. +Examples include the following: +.IP \[bu] 3 +The variables +.BR LANG ", " LANGUAGE ", " NLSPATH ", " LOCPATH , +.BR LC_ALL ", " LC_MESSAGES , +and so on influence locale handling; see +.BR catopen (3), +.BR gettext (3), +and +.BR locale (7). +.IP \[bu] +.B TMPDIR +influences the path prefix of names created by +.BR tempnam (3) +and other routines, and the temporary directory used by +.BR sort (1) +and other programs. +.IP \[bu] +.BR LD_LIBRARY_PATH ", " LD_PRELOAD , +and other +.B LD_* +variables influence the behavior of the dynamic loader/linker. +See also +.BR ld.so (8). +.IP \[bu] +.B POSIXLY_CORRECT +makes certain programs and library routines follow +the prescriptions of POSIX. +.IP \[bu] +The behavior of +.BR malloc (3) +is influenced by +.B MALLOC_* +variables. +.IP \[bu] +The variable +.B HOSTALIASES +gives the name of a file containing aliases +to be used with +.BR gethostbyname (3). +.IP \[bu] +.BR TZ " and " TZDIR +give timezone information used by +.BR tzset (3) +and through that by functions like +.BR ctime (3), +.BR localtime (3), +.BR mktime (3), +.BR strftime (3). +See also +.BR tzselect (8). +.IP \[bu] +.B TERMCAP +gives information on how to address a given terminal +(or gives the name of a file containing such information). +.IP \[bu] +.BR COLUMNS " and " LINES +tell applications about the window size, possibly overriding the actual size. +.IP \[bu] +.BR PRINTER " or " LPDEST +may specify the desired printer to use. +See +.BR lpr (1). +.SH NOTES +Historically and by standard, +.I environ +must be declared in the user program. +However, as a (nonstandard) programmer convenience, +.I environ +is declared in the header file +.I <unistd.h> +if the +.B _GNU_SOURCE +feature test macro is defined (see +.BR feature_test_macros (7)). +.P +The +.BR prctl (2) +.B PR_SET_MM_ENV_START +and +.B PR_SET_MM_ENV_END +operations can be used to control the location of the process's environment. +.P +The +.BR HOME , +.BR LOGNAME , +.BR SHELL , +and +.B USER +variables are set when the user is changed via a +session management interface, typically by a program such as +.BR login (1) +from a user database (such as +.BR passwd (5)). +(Switching to the root user using +.BR su (1) +may result in a mixed environment where +.B LOGNAME +and +.B USER +are retained from old user; see the +.BR su (1) +manual page.) +.SH BUGS +Clearly there is a security risk here. +Many a system command has been +tricked into mischief by a user who specified unusual values for +.BR IFS " or " LD_LIBRARY_PATH . +.P +There is also the risk of name space pollution. +Programs like +.I make +and +.I autoconf +allow overriding of default utility names from the +environment with similarly named variables in all caps. +Thus one uses +.B CC +to select the desired C compiler (and similarly +.BR MAKE , +.BR AR , +.BR AS , +.BR FC , +.BR LD , +.BR LEX , +.BR RM , +.BR YACC , +etc.). +However, in some traditional uses such an environment variable +gives options for the program instead of a pathname. +Thus, one has +.B MORE +and +.BR LESS . +Such usage is considered mistaken, and to be avoided in new +programs. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR bash (1), +.BR csh (1), +.BR env (1), +.BR login (1), +.BR printenv (1), +.BR sh (1), +.BR su (1), +.BR tcsh (1), +.BR execve (2), +.BR clearenv (3), +.BR exec (3), +.BR getenv (3), +.BR putenv (3), +.BR setenv (3), +.BR unsetenv (3), +.BR locale (7), +.BR ld.so (8), +.BR pam_env (8) |