SETENV(3) Linux Programmer's Manual SETENV(3)

NAME
       setenv - change or add an environment variable

SYNOPSIS
       #include 

       int setenv(const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite);

       int unsetenv(const char *name);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see featuretestmacros(7)):

       setenv(), unsetenv():
           BSDSOURCE || POSIXCSOURCE >= 200112L || XOPENSOURCE >= 600

DESCRIPTION
       The  setenv()  function  adds the variable name to the environment with
       the value value, if name does not already exist.  If name does exist in
       the  environment,  then  its  value is changed to value if overwrite is
       nonzero; if overwrite is zero, then the value of name is  not  changed.
       This  function makes copies of the strings pointed to by name and value
       (by contrast with putenv(3)).

       The unsetenv() function deletes the variable name from the environment.
       If  name does not exist in the environment, then the function succeeds,
       and the environment is unchanged.

RETURN VALUE
       The setenv() function returns zero on success, or  -1  on  error,  with
       errno set to indicate the cause of the error.

       The  unsetenv()  function returns zero on success, or -1 on error, with
       errno set to indicate the cause of the error.

ERRORS
       EINVAL name is NULL, points to a string of length 0, or contains an '='
              character.

       ENOMEM Insufficient memory to add a new variable to the environment.

ATTRIBUTES
       For   an   explanation   of   the  terms  used  in  this  section,  see
       attributes(7).

       ┌───────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────┐
       │Interface  │ Attribute     │ Value               │
       ├───────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┤
       │setenv(),  │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe const:env │
       │unsetenv() │               │                     │
       └───────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────┘
CONFORMING TO
       4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
       POSIX.1-2001 does not require setenv() or unsetenv() to be reentrant.

       Prior to glibc 2.2.2, unsetenv() was prototyped as returning void; more
       recent glibc versions follow the POSIX.1-2001-compliant prototype shown
       in the SYNOPSIS.

BUGS
       POSIX.1-2001  specifies  that  if  name contains an '=' character, then
       setenv() should fail with the error EINVAL; however, versions of  glibc
       before 2.3.4 allowed an '=' sign in name.

SEE ALSO
       clearenv(3), getenv(3), putenv(3), environ(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



GNU                               2009-09-20                         SETENV(3)