ENVIRON(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual ENVIRON(7)

environ — user process environment

extern char **environ;

An array of strings called the 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:

The name of the audio control device to be used by audioctl(1), audioplay(1) and audiorecord(1).
The name of the audio device to be used by audioplay(1) and audiorecord(1).
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.
Gives the path name of the file used by editline(7) when command line editing is enabled in various programs. See editrc(5) for information on the format of the file.
A startup list of commands read by ex(1) and vi(1).
A user's login directory, set by login(1) from the password file passwd(5).
Default for all NLS categories. Only used if LC_ALL or the environment variable for a particular NLS category is not provided (LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, or LC_TIME).
Override for all NLS categories. If set, overrides the values of LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC, and LC_TIME.
NLS string-collation order information.
NLS character classification, case conversion, and other character attributes.
NLS format for affirmative and negative responses.
NLS rules and symbols for formatting monetary numeric information.
NLS rules and symbols for formatting nonmonetary numeric information.
NLS rules and symbols for formatting time and date information.
Control how the () macro (from <assert.h>) behaves once the assertion is raised. Refer to _DIAGASSERT(3) for more information.
The login name of the user.
Control the behaviour of the () function. Refer to jemalloc(3) for more information.
The name of the audio mixer device to be used by mixerctl(1).
The program used for paginating the output of several commands such as man(1). If null or not set, the standard pagination program more(1) will be used.
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:/usr/pkg/bin:/usr/local/bin

initially by login(1).

The name of the default printer to be used by lpr(1), lpq(1), and lprm(1).
When using the rcmd(3) function, this variable is used as the program to run instead of rcmd(1).
The full pathname of the user's login shell.
The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared. This information is used by commands, such as nroff(1) which may exploit special terminal capabilities. See /usr/share/misc/terminfo (terminfo(5)) for a list of terminal types.
The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if it begins with a ‘/’, the name of the termcap file. This is only checked if TERMINFO is not set.
The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if it begins with a ‘/’, the name of the terminfo file.
A strftime(3) format string that may be used by programs such as dump(8) for formatting timestamps.
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.
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.

The login name of the user. It is recommended that portable applications use LOGNAME instead.

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 frequently exported by .profile files, such as MAIL, PS1, PS2, and IFS, unless you know what you are doing.

audioctl(1), audioplay(1), audiorecord(1), csh(1), ex(1), login(1), man(1), more(1), sh(1), execve(2), _DIAGASSERT(3), execle(3), jemalloc(3), rcmd(3), system(3), termcap(3), terminfo(3), audio(4), terminfo(5), nls(7), dump(8)

The environ manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.

January 21, 2011 NetBSD 11.0