environ(3) MPE/iX Shell and Utilities environ(3)
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NAME
environ -- standard environment variables
SYNOPSIS
export NAME=value
echo $NAME
DESCRIPTION
When a process is executed, it inherits a set of strings called
the environment. It is conventional for these strings to have the
form:
NAME=value
The export command built into the MPE/iX Shell can be used to set
the variable NAME into the environment of every child process.
The echo command prints the value of environment variable NAME
inside the MPE/iX Shell. Note that the shell maintains addi-
tional shell variables which are not exported to child processes;
because these variables are not passed on, they are not environ-
ment variables.
The following environment variables are used throughout MPE/iX
Shell and Utilities:
COLUMNS If you set this variable to a numeric value, various
commands use its value as the width of the output
device in columns. This overrides the default.
ENV The value of this variable is the name of a file of
MPE/iX Shell commands, or else be null. When the
MPE/iX Shell is invoked, the file named by ENV is exe-
cuted before the MPE/iX Shell does anything else. Thus
your ENV file may contain definitions of aliases, shell
functions, etc. that may be used by shell scripts.
Note that your ENV file is executed, whether or not the
MPE/iX Shell is invoked as a login shell.
HOME This variable is set when you start the MPE/iX Shell.
It contains the name of your home directory, which is
the default directory for cd(1).
LINES If you set this variable to a numeric value, various
commands use its value as the number of lines available
on the output device. This overrides the default.
LOGNAME This variable is set by login on DOS and OS/2, and by
the shell's default startup files on NT. It holds the
user name of the current user.
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environ(3) MPE/iX Shell and Utilities environ(3)
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MAILER For commands which send mail, this variable points at a
mail delivery program. If this variable is not set,
then the default mailer, mailx is invoked.
PATH This variable is set to a default value when you start
the MPE/iX Shell. Normally, it is also set in your
profile file. It lists the directories that are to be
searched to find commands, as described in sh(1).
SHELL This variable contains the full path name of the shell
being used.
TERM This variable contains the terminal type.
TMPDIR By default, MPE/iX Shell and Utilities commands store
temporary files under /tmp. To use a different direc-
tory for temporary files, set TMPDIR to the name of the
directory you want to use.
TZ Commands that print times (and dates) use this variable
to determine the time zone. The TZ variable is nor-
mally set in the /etc/profile file for system-wide use.
See timezone(3) for details.
SEE ALSO
cd(1), env(1), sh(1), timezone(3)
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