Environment Variables

Environment variables consist of name-value pairs and are set outside of applications, but are accessible to them from the environment in which the applications are run.

Environment variables are often set via the terminal or in a script. How they are managed and retrieved varies depending on the operating system or environment. For example, they can be used to store system configuration data or private keys for applications.

Relationship with Unix and Unix-like Variants

On Unix and Unix-like variants such as Linux, environment variables allow for configuration of the system and its applications. They can contain information such as the default language for the system, which default text editor to use, and paths to executable files.

Some Common Environment Variables