Hi there, I have a question regarding the best practices for setting environment variables when executing commands in Unix-like operating systems. Specifically, I would like to understand the differences and use cases for using the env command versus directly setting the environment variable before a command.
I have observed that both methods can be used to set environment variables for command execution. For example: Using env command: env PATH="/custom/path:$PATH" my_command Directly setting the environment variable: PATH="/custom/path:$PATH" my_command My Questions Functional Differences: Are there any functional differences between these two methods in terms of how the environment variables are set and utilized by my_command? Best Practices: In what scenarios would it be more appropriate to use env versus directly setting the environment variable? Are there specific advantages or disadvantages associated with each method? Complex Commands: When dealing with more complex commands or scripts, does one method provide better readability or maintainability over the other? Thank you in advance for your time and expertise. I look forward to your insights and recommendations on this matter. Best regards, Zhao
