ENVIRON(7)                 OpenBSD Reference Manual                 ENVIRON(7)

NAME
     environ - user environment

SYNOPSIS
     extern char **environ;

DESCRIPTION
     An array of strings called the ``environment'' is made available by ex-
     ecve(2) when a process begins.  By convention these strings have the form
     name=value. The following variables are recognized by various commands:

     BLOCKSIZE  The size of the block units used by several commands, most no-
                tably df(1), du(1), and ls(1). May be specified in units of a
                byte by specifying a number, in units of a kilobyte by speci-
                fying a number followed by `K' or `k', in units of a megabyte
                by specifying a number followed by `M' or `m', or 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 ig-
                nored.

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

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

     LOGNAME    The login name of the user.

     PATH       The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by
                csh(1), sh(1), ksh(1), system(3), execvp(3), etc. when looking
                for an executable file.  Initially set to the value of
                _PATH_DEFPATH by login(1), traditionally /usr/bin:/bin, but
                expanded to include /usr/sbin, /sbin, /usr/X11R6/bin, and
                /usr/local/bin in OpenBSD.

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

     PWD        The current working directory.

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

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

     TERMPATH   A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by colons
                or spaces, which are searched for terminal descriptions 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 appli-
                cations 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 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.

     USER       Deprecated synonym of LOGNAME (for backwards compatibility).

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

SEE ALSO
     csh(1), env(1), ex(1), login(1), sh(1), execve(2), execle(3), system(3),
     termcap(3), tzset(3), termcap(5)

HISTORY
     The environ manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.

OpenBSD 3.0                     April 19, 1994                               2
