begin Ben Hartshorne quote on Wed, Dec 04, 2002 at 11:42:42AM -0800: > When you declare PATH=blerg, the variable PATH is available to the > current shell. Under what conditions must you export PATH? I see it in
PATH=blerg is Bourne Shell syntax for setting a shell variable. export PATH takes the contents of the PATH shell variable, and puts it into the shells environment. The environment is inherited by child processes of the shell. > Does the shell keep separate lists of varibles it knows about and > variables it passes on to subshells? why? Yes. Because shell variables are useful in shell programming, but not useful in the program environment. > Could someone say exactly what the export PATH part does and under what > conditions it's necessary? Hope that helps, M
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