Perl 5 version 24.3 documentation

Env

NAME

Env - perl module that imports environment variables as scalars or arrays

SYNOPSIS

  1.     use Env;
  2.     use Env qw(PATH HOME TERM);
  3.     use Env qw($SHELL @LD_LIBRARY_PATH);

DESCRIPTION

Perl maintains environment variables in a special hash named %ENV . For when this access method is inconvenient, the Perl module Env allows environment variables to be treated as scalar or array variables.

The Env::import() function ties environment variables with suitable names to global Perl variables with the same names. By default it ties all existing environment variables (keys %ENV ) to scalars. If the import function receives arguments, it takes them to be a list of variables to tie; it's okay if they don't yet exist. The scalar type prefix '$' is inferred for any element of this list not prefixed by '$' or '@'. Arrays are implemented in terms of split and join, using $Config::Config{path_sep} as the delimiter.

After an environment variable is tied, merely use it like a normal variable. You may access its value

  1.     @path = split(/:/, $PATH);
  2.     print join("\n", @LD_LIBRARY_PATH), "\n";

or modify it

  1.     $PATH .= ":.";
  2.     push @LD_LIBRARY_PATH, $dir;

however you'd like. Bear in mind, however, that each access to a tied array variable requires splitting the environment variable's string anew.

The code:

  1.     use Env qw(@PATH);
  2.     push @PATH, '.';

is equivalent to:

  1.     use Env qw(PATH);
  2.     $PATH .= ":.";

except that if $ENV{PATH} started out empty, the second approach leaves it with the (odd) value ":.", but the first approach leaves it with ".".

To remove a tied environment variable from the environment, assign it the undefined value

  1.     undef $PATH;
  2.     undef @LD_LIBRARY_PATH;

LIMITATIONS

On VMS systems, arrays tied to environment variables are read-only. Attempting to change anything will cause a warning.

AUTHOR

Chip Salzenberg <chip@fin.uucp> and Gregor N. Purdy <gregor@focusresearch.com>