ENVIRON(7) Miscellaneous ENVIRON(7)
NAME
environ - user environment
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
extern char **environ;
DESCRIPTION
Under UNIX, an array of strings called the `environment' is made avail‐
able by execve(2) when a process begins. By convention these strings
have the form name=value. However, because of the shell variable and
environment passing mechanisms normally provided for the IIgs (and with
GNO and ORCA in particular), this method of controlling and accessing
the environment has not previously been available. Specifically, under
GNO and ORCA environ is not initialized by the exec(3) family of calls.
To accomodate this ´feature´, the library call environInit(3) has been
provided to properly initialize environ.
The following names are used by various commands:
PATH The sequence of directory prefixes that gsh(1), sh(1),
time(1V), nice(1), etc., apply in searching for a file
known by an incomplete path name. The prefixes are de‐
limited by spaces since colons are valid pathname charac‐
ters under GS/OS. Current versions of gsh parse PATH
backwards, that is from back to front. lenviron has been
compiled to match this behavior, but can be easily recom‐
piled to conform to the more usual parsing method, front
to back. See the lenviron distribution README file for
more information.
HOME The name of the user's login directory, set by login(1)
from the password file /etc/passwd (see passwd(5)).
TERM The type of terminal on which the user is logged in.
This information is used by commands, such as nroff(1) or
plot(1G), which may exploit special terminal capabili‐
ties. See /etc/termcap (termcap(5)) for a list of termi‐
nal types.
SHELL The path 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, and
vi(1).
USER or LOGNAME
The user's login name.
TZ The name of the time zone that the user is located in.
If TZ is not present in the environment, the system's de‐
fault time zone, normally the time zone that the computer
is located in, is used.
Further names may be placed in the environment by the set and setenv
commands under gsh(1), the export command and name=value arguments in
sh(1), or by the setenv command if you use csh(1). It is unwise to
conflict with certain sh(1) variables that are frequently exported by
.profile files: MAIL, PS1, PS2, IFS.
Various names are expected to be defined and used by locale dependent
commands and functions (see locale(5)).
GNO IMPLEMENTATION
The GNO implementation of the environment actually has two sets of
shell variables. The first is the NULL-terminated array of strings
pointed to by environ. The second is the set of internal shell vari‐
ables set by such system calls as SetGS and UnsetVariableGS. The lat‐
ter of these is the one normally used by ORCA/C. Unfortunately, the
latter implementation makes the porting of some UNIX utilities more
difficult. The environ library was created to solve this problem with‐
out adding significant overhead to environment calls when reference to
environ is not needed.
When the environ variable is not needed, calls made to putenv(3),
setenv(3), and getenv(3) result in only the internal shell variables to
be set, and environ will remain NULL; its default value.
If, however, environ is to be accessed, then an initial call must be
made to environInit(3). This produces the array of strings based on
the shell variables defined internally, and keeps the array current
with further calls to putenv(3), or setenv(3).
CAVEATS
Under the ORCA shell, three `extraneous' shell variables are defined:
STATUS, Command, and Exit. These are reset with every call to the ORCA
shell and should not, in general, be considered to be current.
When one of the exec(3) family of calls is carried out, the environment
will not be passed on through environ. In order for the next process
to use environ, it must make another call to environInit(3). Note,
however, that child processes will still have residing in the internal
shell variables all previous modifications to the environment.
In order to conduct an environment context switch, you must invoke the
functions environPush(3) and environPop(3). This context switch be‐
haves similarily to PushVariableGS or PopVariableGS, but will result in
both internal and external shell variables being saved and restored,
rather than just the internal variables.
While the environ array may be read by user applications, it cannot be
directly modified with impudence; any additions or deletions to the en
viron array other that through the mentioned routines will not be re‐
flected in the internal shell variables. Also, since environ entries
are dynamically allocated and freed, modifying those entries without
using the library routines may result in memory trashing and unpredica‐
ble behavior.
FILES
/etc/passwd
/etc/termcap
HISTORY
This environ implementation was first made available in the (now depre‐
cated) lenviron library. It was incorporated into libc as of GNO
v2.0.6.
AUTHORS
The original environ library (and consequently portions of the current
libc) was created for GNO and ORCA/Shell by Devin Reade. This imple‐
mentation also contains code fragments from Dave Tribby and James
Brookes.
The environ library also contains code is derived from software con‐
tributed to Berkeley by the American National Standards Committee X3,
on Information Processing Systems. Those portions are copyright (c)
1988, 1991. The Regents of the University of California. All rights
reserved.
SEE ALSO
gsh(1), execve(2), exec(3), execl(3), getenv(3), system(3), termcap(3),
passwd(5), termcap(5)
GNO 15 April 1998 ENVIRON(7)
Man(1) output converted with
man2html