Owner's manual

Table 9 Default Environment Variables
Default Value (Applies Only to the /etc/profile File)
Variable
UnspecifiedCOLUMNS
UnspecifiedEDITOR
UnspecifiedENV
/bin/edFCEDIT
UnspecifiedFPATH
UnspecifiedHISTFILE
UnspecifiedHISTSIZE
Home directory of user (this value cannot be changed by the user)HOME
Single space characterIFS
UnspecifiedLINES
/bin:/bin/unsupportedPATH
$pwd:PS1
>PS2
#?PS3
+PS4
/bin/shSHELL
xtermTERM
0TMOUT
UnspecifiedUTILSGE
UnspecifiedVISUAL
If you choose, you can use the default environment established in /etc/profile by the system
administrator. However, you may decide to create or modify .profile, adding aliases, customized
paths, and other variables.
Verify whether you already have a .profile file in your home directory by using the ls -a
command. This command displays all files that begin with a . (dot), along with all other entries.
If .profile does not exist, create it using the vi text editor (see Chapter 7 (page 90)).
Check the contents of /etc/profile so that you can avoid duplicate definitions in your .profile
file.
Setting Environment Variables
In general, you set environment variables with an assignment statement, whose general format is
the following:
name=value
The name entry specifies the variable name. The value entry specifies the value assigned to the
variable. Be sure you do not type spaces on the command line.
You can set environment variables in either of two ways:
• By setting the values on the command line, if you want these values only for the current shell
session
• By editing the .profile file, if you want these values whenever you run osh
46 The OSS Shell