
\S environment:  environment variable \S

Your environment is composed of "shell variables"\S*\S and their values.
HOME and PATH are two examples of shell variables that are part of your
environment.  They are called environment variables.  When you log in, the
system executes programs that create most of the environment variables that
you need. These variables come from /etc/profile, the shell, login(1), and
your ".profile"\S*\S.  You can add variables to your environment either
permanently by adding them in you .profile, or temporarily through the
env(1) command.  Environment variables are important because UNIX system
commands use them.  If you do not have them available for the commands to
use, the commands will fail.

\S*\S defined in the \Sglossary\S
