NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | ATTRIBUTES | STANDARDS | HISTORY | CAVEATS | BUGS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
|
|
setenv(3) Library Functions Manual setenv(3)
setenv - change or add an environment variable
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
#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(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L || /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE
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 (and setenv() returns a success status). 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.
setenv() and unsetenv() functions return zero on success, or -1 on error, with errno set to indicate 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.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). ┌─────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────┐ │ Interface │ Attribute │ Value │ ├─────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────┤ │ setenv(), unsetenv() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe const:env │ └─────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────┘
POSIX.1-2008.
POSIX.1-2001, 4.3BSD. Prior to glibc 2.2.2, unsetenv() was prototyped as returning void; more recent glibc versions follow the POSIX.1-compliant prototype shown in the SYNOPSIS.
POSIX.1 does not require setenv() or unsetenv() to be reentrant.
POSIX.1 specifies that if name contains an '=' character, then setenv() should fail with the error EINVAL; however, versions of glibc before glibc 2.3.4 allowed an '=' sign in name.
clearenv(3), getenv(3), putenv(3), environ(7)
This page is part of the man-pages (Linux kernel and C library
user-space interface documentation) project. Information about
the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see
⟨https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING⟩.
This page was obtained from the tarball man-pages-6.9.1.tar.gz
fetched from
⟨https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/⟩ on
2024-06-26. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML
version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-
to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not
part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 setenv(3)
Pages that refer to this page: ul(1), clearenv(3), getenv(3), libsystemd(3), libudev(3), pmgetconfig(3), putenv(3), sd-bus(3), sd_bus_add_match(3), sd_bus_add_node_enumerator(3), sd_bus_add_object(3), sd_bus_add_object_manager(3), sd_bus_attach_event(3), sd_bus_call(3), sd_bus_call_method(3), sd_bus_can_send(3), sd_bus_close(3), sd_bus_creds_get_pid(3), sd_bus_creds_new_from_pid(3), sd_bus_default(3), sd_bus_emit_signal(3), sd_bus_enqueue_for_read(3), sd_bus_error(3), sd_bus_error_add_map(3), sd-bus-errors(3), sd_bus_get_current_handler(3), sd_bus_get_fd(3), sd_bus_get_name_creds(3), sd_bus_get_name_machine_id(3), sd_bus_interface_name_is_valid(3), sd_bus_is_open(3), sd_bus_list_names(3), sd_bus_message_append(3), sd_bus_message_append_array(3), sd_bus_message_append_basic(3), sd_bus_message_append_string_memfd(3), sd_bus_message_append_strv(3), sd_bus_message_at_end(3), sd_bus_message_copy(3), sd_bus_message_dump(3), sd_bus_message_get_cookie(3), sd_bus_message_get_monotonic_usec(3), sd_bus_message_get_signature(3), sd_bus_message_get_type(3), sd_bus_message_new(3), sd_bus_message_new_method_call(3), sd_bus_message_new_method_error(3), sd_bus_message_new_signal(3), sd_bus_message_open_container(3), sd_bus_message_read(3), sd_bus_message_rewind(3), sd_bus_message_seal(3), sd_bus_message_sensitive(3), sd_bus_message_set_destination(3), sd_bus_message_set_expect_reply(3), sd_bus_message_skip(3), sd_bus_message_verify_type(3), sd_bus_negotiate_fds(3), sd_bus_new(3), sd_bus_path_encode(3), sd_bus_pending_method_calls(3), sd_bus_process(3), sd_bus_query_sender_creds(3), sd_bus_reply_method_error(3), sd_bus_reply_method_return(3), sd_bus_request_name(3), sd_bus_send(3), sd_bus_set_address(3), sd_bus_set_close_on_exit(3), sd_bus_set_connected_signal(3), sd_bus_set_description(3), sd_bus_set_exit_on_disconnect(3), sd_bus_set_fd(3), sd_bus_set_method_call_timeout(3), sd_bus_set_property(3), sd_bus_set_sender(3), sd_bus_set_server(3), sd_bus_set_watch_bind(3), sd_bus_slot_get_bus(3), sd_bus_slot_ref(3), sd_bus_slot_set_description(3), sd_bus_slot_set_destroy_callback(3), sd_bus_slot_set_floating(3), sd_bus_slot_set_userdata(3), sd_bus_start(3), sd_bus_track_add_name(3), sd_bus_track_new(3), sd_bus_wait(3), sd-daemon(3), sd-device(3), sd_device_get_syspath(3), sd-event(3), sd_event_add_child(3), sd_event_add_defer(3), sd_event_add_inotify(3), sd_event_add_io(3), sd_event_add_memory_pressure(3), sd_event_add_signal(3), sd_event_add_time(3), sd_event_exit(3), sd_event_get_fd(3), sd_event_new(3), sd_event_now(3), sd_event_run(3), sd_event_set_signal_exit(3), sd_event_set_watchdog(3), sd_event_source_get_event(3), sd_event_source_get_pending(3), sd_event_source_set_description(3), sd_event_source_set_destroy_callback(3), sd_event_source_set_enabled(3), sd_event_source_set_exit_on_failure(3), sd_event_source_set_floating(3), sd_event_source_set_prepare(3), sd_event_source_set_priority(3), sd_event_source_set_ratelimit(3), sd_event_source_set_userdata(3), sd_event_source_unref(3), sd_event_wait(3), sd_get_seats(3), sd-hwdb(3), sd_hwdb_get(3), sd_hwdb_new(3), sd-id128(3), sd_id128_get_machine(3), sd_id128_randomize(3), sd_id128_to_string(3), sd-journal(3), sd_journal_add_match(3), sd_journal_print(3), sd-json(3), sd_listen_fds(3), sd-login(3), sd_login_monitor_new(3), sd_machine_get_class(3), sd_notify(3), sd_path_lookup(3), sd_seat_get_active(3), sd_session_is_active(3), sd_uid_get_state(3), sd_watchdog_enabled(3), environ(7)