NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON
SETENV(3) Linux Programmer's Manual SETENV(3)
setenv - change or add an environment variable
#include <stdlib.h>
int setenv(const char *name, const char *value, int overwrite);
int unsetenv(const char *name);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
setenv(), unsetenv(): _BSD_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L ||
_XOPEN_SOURCE >= 600
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 non-zero; 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.
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.
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.
4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
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.
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.
clearenv(3), getenv(3), putenv(3), environ(7)
This page is part of release 3.23 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)