how to setenv using Bourne .sh

b. f. bf1783 at googlemail.com
Sat Jul 10 11:43:19 UTC 2010


Polytropon wrote:
On Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:53:17 +0800, Aiza <aiza21 at comclark.com> wrote:
>> Trying the set the pkg_add environment variable PKGDIR using this
>>
>>
>> setenv PKGDIR="/usr/packages"  and get this error message
>> setenv: Syntax Error.
>
>Of course. The sh shell doesn't have setenv.

It looks like he is actually using csh, because in the Bourne shell
issuing that command usually yields "setenv: not found".  His problem
is that, unlike "export",  setenv doesn't take an "=" between the
variable and the value to be assigned to it.  See csh(1).

>> man setenv is useless.
>
>The manual entry of setenv can be found in "man csh". :-)

When you are directed to builtin(1), it usually means that you should
refer to the manpage(s) of the shell that you are using for the
information that you need.

>> The question is how do I set a environment variable using the default
>> freebsd shell?
>
>You mean: FreeBSD's default scripting shell. :-)

He could mean the default interactive shell, which could be something
other than sh(1), despite the title of his message.  As an alternative
to "export" or "setenv", he could instead use env(1) in some
instances.

b.


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