HOSTNAME: environment variable or not?

[Henry Spencer]

On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, bob wrote:
> On a Debian system I've been working with HOSTNAME is not an exported 
> environment variable.   ie.
> 	export | less
> doesn't show it.   Nor does the C function getenv("HOSTNAME") pick it up.   
> 	echo $HOSTNAME
> does?

Note that a variable and an *exported* variable are two different things. 
A variable which is set but *not* exported is visible within the shell
that set it -- and therefore gets substituted when that shell interprets a
command using $ in an argument -- but is not passed to the commands the
shell runs, so getenv() in a command won't find it.  And "export" lists
only exported variables. 

Try "set | less".  That's how you list *all* variables, exported or not.

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       henry-lqW1N6Cllo0sV2N9l4h3zg at public.gmane.org

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