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32.\"	$OpenBSD: getenv.3,v 1.11 2005/07/26 04:20:23 jaredy Exp $
33.\"
34.Dd December 11, 1993
35.Dt GETENV 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm getenv ,
39.Nm putenv ,
40.Nm setenv ,
41.Nm unsetenv
42.Nd environment variable functions
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
45.Ft char *
46.Fn getenv "const char *name"
47.Ft int
48.Fn setenv "const char *name" "const char *value" "int overwrite"
49.Ft int
50.Fn putenv "const char *string"
51.Ft int
52.Fn unsetenv "const char *name"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54These functions set, unset, and fetch environment variables from the host
55.Em environment list .
56For compatibility with differing environment conventions, the given arguments
57.Fa name
58and
59.Fa value
60may be appended and prepended, respectively, with an equal sign
61.Dq Li \&= .
62.Pp
63The
64.Fn getenv
65function obtains the current value of the environment variable
66.Fa name .
67If the variable
68.Fa name
69is not in the current environment, a null pointer is returned.
70.Pp
71The
72.Fn setenv
73function inserts or resets the environment variable
74.Fa name
75in the current environment list.
76If the variable
77.Fa name
78does not exist in the list, it is inserted with the given
79.Fa value .
80If the variable does exist, the argument
81.Fa overwrite
82is tested; if
83.Fa overwrite
84is zero, the variable is not reset, otherwise it is reset to the given
85.Fa value .
86.Pp
87The
88.Fn putenv
89function takes an argument of the form
90.Ar name Ns = Ns Ar value
91and is equivalent to:
92.Bd -literal -offset indent
93setenv(name, value, 1);
94.Ed
95.Pp
96The
97.Fn unsetenv
98function deletes all instances of the variable name pointed to by
99.Fa name
100from the list.
101.Sh RETURN VALUES
102The functions
103.Fn setenv ,
104.Fn putenv ,
105and
106.Fn unsetenv
107return zero if successful; otherwise the global variable
108.Va errno
109is set to indicate the error and \-1 is returned.
110.Pp
111If
112.Fn getenv
113is successful, the string returned should be considered read-only.
114.Sh ERRORS
115.Bl -tag -width Er
116.It Bq Er ENOMEM
117The function
118.Fn setenv
119or
120.Fn putenv
121failed because they were unable to allocate memory for the environment.
122.It Bq Er EINVAL
123The function
124.Fn unsetenv
125failed because the argument was a NULL pointer, an empty string, or
126a string containing an
127.Sq =
128character.
129.El
130.Sh SEE ALSO
131.Xr csh 1 ,
132.Xr sh 1 ,
133.Xr execve 2 ,
134.Xr environ 7
135.Sh STANDARDS
136The
137.Fn getenv
138function conforms to
139.St -ansiC .
140.Pp
141The
142.Fn unsetenv
143function conforms to
144.St -susv3 .
145.Sh HISTORY
146The function
147.Fn getenv
148appeared in
149.At v7
150and
151.Bx 3 .
152The functions
153.Fn setenv
154and
155.Fn unsetenv
156appeared in
157.Bx 4.3 Tahoe .
158The
159.Fn putenv
160function appeared in
161.Bx 4.3 Reno .
162