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Set and Get environmental shell variable using c++

Last Updated on Sunday, 06 June 2010 07:43 Saturday, 05 June 2010 15:11

Here is a small example on how to set and get environmental variables using getnenv() and putenv() functions defined by C/C++ stdlib.h library. Environmental variable expansion is a great feature of a Linux shell as it enables programmers and users to rely on the environment settings of each user separately. C++ getenv() will read all exported environmental variables and putenv() will set existing or create new variables. Here is a small c++ program which can do this job:

 
#include <stdlib.h> 
#include <iostream> 
 
int main() { 
 
// get and print shell environmental variable home 
std::cout << "SHELL = " << getenv("SHELL") << std::endl; 
std::cout << "MYENV = " << getenv("MYENV") << std::endl; 
 
//set new shell environmental variable using putenv 
char mypath[]="TEMP=/my/new/temp/path/"; 
putenv( mypath ); 
 
std::cout << "TEMP = " << getenv("TEMP") << std::endl; 
 
return 0; 
 
}

Now lets' try to export new shell environment variable MYENV:

$ export MYENV=linuxconfig.org

Compile c++ program:

$ g++ shell_env.cpp -o shell_env

Run:

$ ./shell_env

Output:

SHELL = /bin/bash
MYENV = linuxconfig.org
TEMP = /my/new/temp/path/

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