env, printenv - Displays or sets the current environment, or displays the values of environment variables
syntax: printenv [name]

Current Syntax

env [-i] [name=value...] [command] [args...]
printenv [name]

Obsolescent Syntax

env [-] [name=value...] [command] [args...]

OPTIONS
-i Invokes utility with exactly the environment specified by the arguments; the inherited environment is ignored completely. Changes are in effect only while the specified command is running.

- Dash is equivalent to -i option.

OPERANDS

name=value Changes in the form name=value are added to the current environment before the command is run.

name Name of an environment variable to be printed.

command Name of a command to be invoked with the modified environment.

args Arguments to be passed to command when it is executed.

Description

The env command lets you get and change your current environment, and then run the specified command with the changed environment. If the -i option is used, the current environment is ignored and the command runs with only the changed environment. Changes are only in effect while the specified command is running.

If command is not specified, env displays your current environment, one name=value pair per line.

[Tru64 UNIX] The printenv command displays the values of the variables in the environment. If name is specified, only its value is printed. If name is not the name of a currently set environment variable, only a blank line is printed, no error is reported.
If name is not specified, printenv displays the current environment, one name=value per line.

Exit Status

If command is invoked, the exit status of env is the exit status of command; otherwise, the env utility exits with one of the following values:

0 The env utility completed successfully.

1-125 An error occurred in the env utility.

126 The command specified by command was found but could not be invoked.

127 The command specified by command could not be found.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables affect the execution of env:

LANG
Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that
are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value
from the default locale is used. If any of the internationalization
variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of
the variables had been defined.

LC_ALL
If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the
other internationalization variables.

LC_CTYPE
Determines the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-
byte characters in arguments).

LC_MESSAGES
Determines the locale for the format and contents of diagnostic mes-
sages written to standard error.

NLSPATH
Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of
LC_MESSAGES.

Example:
1. To add a shell variable to the environment for the duration of one command (sh only), enter: TZ=MST7MDT date env TZ=MST7MDT date Each of these commands displays the current date and time in Mountain Standard Time. The two commands shown are equivalent. When date is finished, the previous value of TZ takes effect again. 2. To replace the environment with another one, enter: env -i PATH=$PATH IDIR=/u/jim/include LIBDIR=/u/jim/lib make This runs make in an environment that consists only of these defini- tions for PATH, IDIR, and LIBDIR. You must redefine PATH so that the shell can find the make command. When make is finished, the previous environment takes effect again. 3. To find the current setting of the TERM environment variable, enter: printenv TERM The command returns the value for the TERM environment variable.