Erle Robotics Unix Introduction Gitbook Free

Environment Variables

An example of an environment variable is the OSTYPE variable. The value of this is the current operating system you are using. Type

echo $OSTYPE

More examples of environment variables are

Variable Meaning
USER your login name
HOME the path name of your home directory
HOST the name of the computer you are using
ARCH the architecture of the computers processor
DISPLAY the name of the computer screen to display X windows
PRINTER the default printer to send print jobs
PATH the directories the shell should search to find a command
OSTYPE The value of this is the current operating system you are using

Finding out the current values of these variables.

ENVIRONMENT variables are set using the setenv command, displayed using the printenv or env commands, and unset using the unsetenv command.

To show all values of these variables, type

printenv | less

working with erlerobot:

environment_variables