[1] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

environment variable
     
         a variable that is bound in
        the current environment.  when evaluating an expression in
        some environment, the evaluation of a variable consists of
        looking up its name in the environment and substituting its
        value.
     
        most programming languages have some concept of an environment
        but in unix shell scripts it has a specific meaning
        slightly different from other contexts.  in shell scripts,
        environment variables are one kind of shell variable.  they
        differ from local variables and command line arguments in
        that they are inheritted by a child process.  examples are
        the path variable that tells the shell the file system
        paths to search to find command executables and the tz
        variable which contains the local time zone.  the variable
        called "shell" specifies the type of shell being used.
     
        these variables are used by commands or shell scripts to
        discover things about the environment they are operating in.
        environment variables can be changed or created by the user
        or a program.
     
        to see a list of environment variables type "setenv" at the
        csh or tcsh prompt or "set" at the sh, bash, jsh
        or ksh prompt.
     
        in other programming languages, e.g. functional programming
        languages, the environment is extended with new bindings when
        a function's parameters are bound to its actual
        arguments or when new variables are declared.  in a
        block-structured procedural language, the environment
        usually consists of a linked list of activation records.
     
        1999-01-26
     
     
see also:
variable unix shell scripts shell variable local variables command line arguments 
child process file system paths executables user 
csh tcsh prompt sh bash 
jsh ksh functional programming function parameters 
actual arguments block-structured procedural linked list activation records 

Environment >> E Words
Environment, definition of term: Environment
environment_pag1.html

Variable >> V Words
Variable, definition of term: Variable
variable_pag1.html

Variable Resist >> V Words
Variable Resist, definition of term: Variable Resist
variable+resist_pag1.html