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Various Environmental Variables you can set, and what they do. You can display their current settings by using the command
set
- ASPELL_CONF
- Configuration file for aspell, see aspell(1)
- APT_CONFIG
- see apt.conf(5)
- BROWSER
- The users prefered browser (see
http://www.tuxedo.org/esr/BROWSER/)
- BZIP2
- Command line arguments for BZIP2
- BZCAT
- Command line arguments for bzcat
- COLUMNS
- Number of columns on the screen
- DEAD
- used by Mail(1) apparently.
- DISPLAY
- Current X(1) display
- EDITOR
- Users prefered program to edit text files
- ftp_proxy
- ftp proxy server, see apt.conf(5)
- HOME
- Home directory
- HOSTALIASES
- Path to host aliases file, see hostname(7).
- HOSTFILE
- Path to /etc/hosts
- IFS
- Internal Field Seperator, used for word splitting in shells, see bash(1)
- INPUTRC
- Path to .inputrc file. see bash(1)
- LANG
- The name of the locale to use for locale categories. See locale(5)
- LC_ADDRESS
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_ALL
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_COLLATE
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_CTYPE
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_IDENTIFICATION
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_MESSAGES
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_NAME
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_NUMERIC
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_MEASUREMENT
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_MONETARY
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LC_PAPER
- Locale Paper size, see locale(1)
- LC_TELEPHONE
- Locale settings, see locale(1)
- LD_AOUT_LIBRARY_PATH
- LD_LIBRARY_PATH for a.out binaries
- LD_AOUT_PRELOAD
- LD_PRELOAD for a.out binaries
- LD_BIND_NOW
- Disable lazy linking, see ld.so(8)
- LD_LIBRARY_PATH
- Path to search for libraries, see ld.so(8)
- LD_PRELOAD
- Libraries to load before all others, see ld.so(8)
- LD_NOWARN
- Suppress warnings of a.out minor version differences, see ld.so(8)
- LD_KEEPDIR
- Don't ignore directory names of a.out libraries. see ld.so(8)
- LD_TRACE_LOADED_OBJECTS
- Give ldd output instead of running, see ld.so(8)
- LESS
- options passed to less(1) automatically
- LESSANSIENDCHARS
- see less(1)
- LESSBINFMT
- see less(1)
- LESSCHARDEF
- Charset definition for less(1)
- LESSCHARSET
- Charset used by less(1) to display.
- LESSCLOSE
- see less(1)
- LESSECHO
- see less(1)
- LESSEDIT
- Editor used by less(1)
- LESSGLOBALTAGS
- see less(1)
- LESSKEY
- Name of the lesskey(1) file
- LESSKEY_SYSTEM
- Name of the system wide lesskey(1) file
- LESSMETAESCAPE
- see less(1)
- LESSOPEN
- less(1) preprocessor
- LESSSECURE
- Put less(1) into secure mode.
- LESSSEPERATOR
- used by less(1)
- LINES
- Number of lines on the screen
- LISTER
- Used by Mail(1), obsolete version of PAGER?
- LOCALDOMAIN
- Local domain, see hostname(7)
- LOGNAME
- The name of the logged in user
- LPDEST
- Default printer
- MAIL
- File for the shell to check for mail, see bash(1)
- MAILCHECK
- How often to check for mail, see bash(1)
- MAILPATH
- Files for the shell to check for mail, see bash(1)
- MALLOC_CHECK_
- Change the implementation of malloc(3) to catch more bugs.
- MANPATH
- Path to search for man pages
- MBOX
- Path to mbox file? see Mail(1)
- NPRINTER
- Default printer, see lpr(1)
- NGPRNTER
- Default printer, see lpr(1)
- PAGER
- The users prefered pager program
- PATH
- Path to search for programs
- POSIXLY_CORRECT
- Makes programs/libraries adhere to strict POSIX requirements. Apparently RMS thought about making the name of this variable POSIX_ME_HARDER.
- PRINTER
- Default printer
- PROMPTCOMMAND
- Command for the shell to run every time it displays a prompt, see bash(1)
- PS1
- Shell prompt, see bash(1)
- PS2
- Shell prompt, see bash(1)
- PS3
- Shell prompt, see bash(1)
- PS4
- Shell prompt, see bash(1)
- PWD
- Process Working Directory (set by some shells)
- REPLYTO
- Used by Mail(1), reply to address?
- RESOLV_HOST_CONF
- Filename of /etc/host.conf. see resolv+(8), host.conf(5)
- RESOLV_SERV_ORDER
- Overrides "order" keyword in /etc/host.conf, see resolv+(8)
- RESOLV_SPOOF_CHECK
- Sets Spoof Checking see resolv+(8)
- RESOLV_ADD_TRIM_DOMAINS
- Adds to Trim Domains, see resolv+(8)
- RESOLV_OVERRIDE_TRIM_DOMAINS
- Overrides Tirm Domains from /etc/host.conf, see resolv+(8)
- RESOLV_MULTI
- Overrides "multi" keyword from /etc/host.conf, see resolv+(8)
- RESOLV_REORDER
- Overrides the "reorder" keyword from /etc/host.conf, see resolv+(8)
- SHELL
- The users shell
- SSH_ASKPASS
- Used by ssh(1)
- SSH_AUTH_SOCK
- Used by ssh(1)
- SSH_CLIENT
- Used by ssh(1)
- SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND
- Used by ssh(1)
- SSH_TTY
- Used by ssh(1)
- SYSTEM
- Operating System, used by apropos(1)
- TERM
- The terminal type
- TERMCAP
- Terminal type
- TIMEFORMAT
- format of the time(1) command, see time(1) and bash(1)
- TMOUT
- Timeout for shells to log you out, see bash(1)
- TMPDIR
- Directory for temp files, see tempnam(3), sort(1) etc
- TZ
- Set TimeZone information, tzset(1)?
- TZDIR
- Set TimeZone information
- USER
- The currently logged in user
- VISUAL
- The users prefered visual editor
make(1) often uses the name of the command as a path to that command, eg: CC, BISON, YACC, LEX, FLEX, F77, LD etc, so variables named after the command should be avoided. make(1) also uses the "FLAGS" suffix for default flags to pass a command, eg: CFLAGS, LDFLAGS etc.
Some good environmental variables to set, and what to set them to:
