Understanding Unix shells and environment variables

A shell variable is a memory storage area that can be used to hold a value, which can then be used by any built-in shell command within a single shell. An environment variable is a shell variable that has been exported or published to the environment by a shell command so that shells and shell scripts executed below the parent shell also have access to the variable.

One built-in shell command can set a shell variable value, while another can pick it up. In the following doecho script example, $PLACE is set in the first line and picked up in the second line by the built-in echo command.

Create this script and save it as doecho. Change the mode using chmod a+x doecho:

# doecho sample variable
PLACE=Hollywood
echo "doecho says Hello " $PLACE

Run the program as shown below.

In all of the following examples, I use the convention of ./command to execute a shell script in the current directory. You don't need to do this if your $PATH variable contains the . as one of the searched directories. The ./command method works for scripts in your current directory, even if the current directory isn't included on your path.

$ ./doecho
doecho says Hello Hollywood
$

In this first example, $PLACE is a shell variable.

Now, create another shell script called echoplace and change its mode to executable.

# echoplace echo $PLACE variable
echo "echoplace says Hello " $PLACE

Modify doecho to execute echoplace as its last step.

# doecho sample variable
PLACE=Hollywood
echo "doecho says Hello " $PLACE
./echoplace

Run the doecho script. The output is a bit surprising.

$ ./doecho
doecho says Hello Hollywood
echoplace says Hello
$

In this example, echoplace is run as the last command of doecho. It tries to echo the $PLACE variable but comes up blank. Say goodbye to Hollywood.

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