Working with BASH environment variables (simple commands for beginners)

Tutorials > Operating Systems > Linux > Tips And Tricks > Working with BASH environment variables (simple commands for beginners)

• Display names and values of all environment variables
• Assign value to an environment variable
• Print value of a particular environment variable
• Append value to an existing environment variable
• Make the variable globally accessible
• Delete an environment variable

I have tried instructions below on Ubuntu Server but should work for all distributions running the BASH shell.

Display names and values of all environment variables

env

Assign value to an environment variable

TESTVAR=value

Example:

TESTVAR=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin

Command above assigns the value "/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin" to the TESTVAR variable.

Print value of a particular environment variable

echo $<variable name>

Example:

echo $TESTVAR

Command above prints the value of BASH's TESTVAR variable.

Append value to an existing environment variable:

<variable name>=$<variable name>:<new value>

Example:

TESTVAR=$TESTVAR:/bin

Command above appends "/bin" to the value of BASH's TESTVAR variable.

Make the variable globally accessible:

export <variable name>

Example:

export TESTVAR

Delete an environment variable:

unset <variable name>

Example:

unset TESTVAR

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