FreeBSD csh / tcsh: Export Shell Variable

Q. I'm using FreeBSD 7 with csh (tcsh) shell. How do I export shell variable under FreeBSD operating systems?

A. tcsh is an enhanced but completely compatible version of the Berkeley UNIX C shell, csh. It is a command language interpreter usable both as an interactive login shell and a shell script command processor. It includes a command-line editor and many other features.

FreeBSD display current environment variables

Type the following command to print current names and values of environment variables:
setenv
Sample output:

SHELL=/usr/local/bin/bash
TERM=xterm
SSH_CLIENT=10.10.29.66 37484 22
SSH_TTY=/dev/ttyp2
USER=root
PAGER=more
FTP_PASSIVE_MODE=YES
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/root/bin
MAIL=/var/mail/root
BLOCKSIZE=K
PWD=/root
SHLVL=2
HOME=/root
LOGNAME=root
SSH_CONNECTION=10.10.29.66 37484 10.24.116.2 22
_=/bin/csh
HOSTTYPE=FreeBSD
VENDOR=unknown
OSTYPE=FreeBSD
MACHTYPE=unknown
GROUP=wheel
HOST=vps.nixcraft.in
REMOTEHOST=10.10.29.66
EDITOR=vim

Export shell variable

To export and set new environment variables, enter:
setenv name value
setenv EDITOR /usr/bin/vim

You need to add all your enviorment variables to ~/.cshrc file - csh resource script, read at beginning of execution by each shell. Here is my sample .cshrc file:

alias h         history 25
alias j         jobs -l
alias la        ls -a
alias lf        ls -FA
alias ll        ls -lA

# A righteous umask
umask 22

set path = (/sbin /bin /usr/sbin /usr/bin /usr/games /usr/local/sbin /usr/local/bin $HOME/bin)

setenv  EDITOR  vim
setenv  PAGER   less
setenv  BLOCKSIZE       M

if ($?prompt) then
        # An interactive shell -- set some stuff up
        set prompt = "`/bin/hostname -s`# "
        set filec
        set history = 100
        set savehist = 100
        set mail = (/var/mail/$USER)
        if ( $?tcsh ) then
                bindkey "^W" backward-delete-word
                bindkey -k up history-search-backward
                bindkey -k down history-search-forward
        endif
endif

A list of commonly used environment variables

An array of strings called the environment is made available by execve() call when a process begins. By convention these strings have the form name=value. The following names are used by various commands

• BLOCKSIZE : The size of the block units used by several commands, most notably df, du and ls. BLOCKSIZE may be specified in units of a byte by specifying a number, in units of a kilobyte by specifying a number followed by K or k, its of a megabyte by specifying a number followed by M or m etc.
• COLUMNS : The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal. Utilities such as ls and who use this to format output into columns.
• EDITOR : Default editor name.
• EXINIT : A startup list of commands read by ex and vi.
• HOME : A user's login directory, set by login from the password file /etc/passwd.
• LANG : This variable configures all programs which use setlocale to use the specified locale unless the LC_* variables are set.
• MAIL : The location of the user's mailbox instead of the default in /var/mail, used by mail, sh, and many other mail clients.
• PAGER : Default paginator program. The program specified by this variable is used by mail, man, ftp, etc, to display information which is longer than the current display.
• PATH : The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched by csh, sh, system, execvp, etc, when looking for an executable file. PATH is set to /usr/bin:/bin initially by login.
• PRINTER : The name of the default printer to be used by lpr, lpq, and lprm.
• PWD : The current directory pathname.
• SHELL : The full pathname of the user's login shell.
• TERM : The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared. This information is used by commands, such as nroff or plot which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
• TMPDIR : The directory in which to store temporary files. Most applications use either /tmp or var/tmp. Setting this variable will make them use another directory.
• TZ : The timezone to use when displaying dates.
• USER : The login name of the user.

Further readings:

• man page - csh, tcsh