On 1/27/21 4:48 PM, roucaries.bast...@gmail.com wrote: > From: Bastien Roucariès <ro...@debian.org> > > Compare with argc/argv
Why? The commit message should explain why you think this change is useful. Thanks, Michael > and describe the purpose of environment > --- > man7/environ.7 | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+) > > diff --git a/man7/environ.7 b/man7/environ.7 > index 7eeb1fe0e..f9e49a572 100644 > --- a/man7/environ.7 > +++ b/man7/environ.7 > @@ -66,6 +66,30 @@ if the > feature test macro is defined (see > .BR feature_test_macros(7)). > .PP > +At time of execution, a program receives context information by two > mechanisms. > +The first way is the program arguments, represented by the > +.I argc > +and > +.I argv > +arguments of the > +.I main > +function. The second is the > +.I environ > +variable as discussed in this manual. > +.PP > +The program arguments are typically used to pass so-called > +command-line arguments specific to a particular use of the program > +being invoked, thus changing the program's behavior for this use case. > +The environment, on the other hand, keeps track of information that is > shared by many programs and > +rarely changes. For example, a running process can query the value of the > +.B TMDIR > +environment variable to discover a suitable location to store temporary > files. > +.PP > +Standard environment variables are used for information about the user' home > directory, > +current language, etc., and a user can define additional variables for other > purposes. > +The set of all environment variables that have values is collectively known > as > +the process environment or simply the environment. > +.PP > This array of strings is made available to the process by the > .BR exec (3) > call that started the process. > -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
