GETENV(3)

NAME
getenv, putenv, setenv, unsetenv - environment variable functions

LIBRARY
libc

SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>
char *
getenv(const char *name);
int
setenv(const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite);
int
putenv(char *string);
int
unsetenv(const char *name);

DESCRIPTION
These functions set, unset and fetch environment variables from the host environment list.

The getenv() function obtains the current value of the environment variable, name. The application should not modify the string pointed to by the getenv() function.

The setenv() function inserts or resets the environment variable name in the current environment list. If the variable name does not exist in the list, it is inserted with the given value. If the variable does exist, the argument overwrite is tested; if overwrite is zero, the variable is not reset, otherwise it is reset to the given value.

The putenv() function takes an argument of the form ``name=value'' and is equivalent to:

    setenv(name, value, 1);

The string pointed to by string becomes part of the environment. A program should not alter or free the string, and should not use stack or other transient string variables as arguments to putenv(). The setenv() function is strongly preferred to putenv().

The unsetenv() function deletes all instances of the variable name pointed to by name from the list. Note that only the variable name (e.g., "NAME") should be given; "NAME=value" will not work.

RETURN VALUES
The getenv() function returns the value of the environment variable as a NUL -terminated string. If the variable name is not in the current environment, NULL is returned.

ERRORS

[EINVAL]
    The function getenv(), setenv() or unsetenv() failed because the name is a NULL pointer, points to an empty string, or points to a string containing an “=” character.

    The function putenv() failed because string is a NULL pointer or string is without an “=” character.

[ENOMEM]
    The function setenv(), unsetenv() or putenv() failed because it was unable to allocate memory for the environment.

LEGACY SYNOPSIS
#include <stdlib.h>

void
unsetenv(const char *name);

unsetenv() doesn't return a value.

COMPATIBILITY
putenv() no longer copies its input buffer. This often appears in crash logs as a crash in getenv(). Avoid passing local buffers or freeing the memory that is passed to putenv(). Use setenv(), which still makes an internal copy of its buffers.

unsetenv() no longer parses the variable name; e.g., unsetenv ("FOO=BAR") no longer works. Use unsetenv("FOO"). unsetenv() also now returns a status value and will set errno to EINVAL if name is not a defined environment variable.

SEE ALSO
csh(1), sh(1), execve(2), compat(5), environ(7)

STANDARDS
The getenv() function conforms to isoC. The setenv(), putenv() and unsetenv() functions conforms to p1003.1-2001.

HISTORY
The functions setenv() and unsetenv() appeared in AT&T UNIX. The putenv() function appeared in 4.3BSD Reno.

BUGS
Successive calls to setenv() that assign a larger-sized value than any previous value to the same name will result in a memory leak. The FreeBSD semantics for this function (namely, that the contents of value are copied and that old values remain accessible indefinitely) make this bug unavoidable. Future versions may eliminate one or both of these semantic guarantees in order to fix the bug.