FreeBSD Man Pages

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 names are used by various commands:

     BLOCKSIZE	  The size of the block units used by several commands, most
		  notably df(1), du(1) and ls(1).  BLOCKSIZE 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'' and 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.

     COLUMNS	  The user's preferred width in column positions for the ter-
		  minal.  Utilities such as ls(1) and who(1) use this to for-
		  mat output into columns.  If unset or empty, utilities will
		  use an ioctl(2) call to ask the terminal driver for the
		  width.

     EDITOR	  Default editor name.

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

     HOME	  A user's login directory, set by login(1) from the password
		  file passwd(5).

     LANG	  This variable configures all programs which use setlocale(3)
		  to use the specified locale unless the LC_* variables are
		  set.

     LC_ALL	  Overrides the values of LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
		  LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, LC_TIME and LANG.

     LC_COLLATE   Locale to be used for ordering of strings.

     LC_CTYPE	  Locale to be used for character classification (letter,
		  space, digit, etc.) and for interpreting byte sequences as
		  multibyte characters.

     LC_MESSAGES  Locale to be used for diagnostic messages.

     LC_MONETARY  Locale to be used for interpreting monetary input and for-
		  matting output.

     LC_NUMERIC   Locale to be used for interpreting numeric input and format-
		  ting output.

     LC_TIME	  Locale to be used for interpreting dates input and for for-
		  matting output.

		  variable is used by mail(1), man(1), ftp(1), etc, to display
		  information which is longer than the current display.

     PATH	  The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched
		  by csh(1), sh(1), system(3), execvp(3), etc, when looking
		  for an executable file.  PATH is set to ``/usr/bin:/bin''
		  initially by login(1).

     PRINTER	  The name of the default printer to be used by lpr(1),
		  lpq(1), and lprm(1).

     PWD	  The current directory pathname.

     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) or
		  plot(1) which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
		  See /usr/share/misc/termcap (termcap(5)) for a list of ter-
		  minal types.

     TERMCAP	  The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if it begins
		  with a '/', the name of the termcap file.  See TERMPATH
		  below, and termcap(5).

     TERMPATH	  A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by
		  colons or spaces, which are searched for terminal descrip-
		  tions 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
		  applications 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 for-
		  mat is a pathname relative to ``/usr/share/zoneinfo''.  For
		  example, the command ``env TZ=America/Los_Angeles date''
		  displays the current time in California.  See tzset(3) for
		  more information.

     USER	  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).  It is unwise to change certain sh(1) variables that are fre-
     quently exported by .profile files, such as MAIL, PS1, PS2, and IFS,
     unless you know what you are doing.

SEE ALSO

     cd(1), csh(1), env(1), ex(1), login(1), sh(1), execve(2), execle(3),
     getenv(3), setenv(3), setlocale(3), system(3), termcap(3), termcap(5)

HISTORY

     The environ manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.

FreeBSD 5.4			April 12, 2003			   FreeBSD 5.4

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