environment variable issue in shell

Question

I am using Red Hat Linux Enterprise 5. I know the theory that -- using export to set environment variable, the environment variable will apply to current and child environment, but without using export to set environment variable, the environment variable will only apply to the current environment.

My confusion is, what is the exact definition of "child environment" and "current environment"? For example,

$ var1=123
$ echo "Hello [$var1]"

the value of var1 (which is 123) is printed in shell, but I think echo is a command invoked by current shell, and it (the echo command) should be a child environment of current shell and the value of var1 should not (because not using export var1=123) impact echo. Any comments?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The variable is expanded in the current environment.

$ set -x    # turn on tracing
$ var1=123
+ var1=123
$ echo "Hello [$var1]"
+ echo 'Hello [123]'
Hello [123]
$ set +x

As you can see from the trace (the lines beginning with "+"), echo sees "Hello [123]". It never gets the variable.

As you saw from gogiel's answer to your other question, exported environment variables do affect the environment of the child:

$ echo $LANG
en_US.UTF-8
$ declare -p LANG   # the response includes "-x" which shows the variable is already marked for export
declare -x LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
$ ls --help | head -n 4
Usage: ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort.
$ LANG=es_MX.utf8 ls --help | head -n 4
Uso: ls [OPCIÓN]... [FICHERO]...
Muestra información acerca de los ARCHIVOS (del directorio actual por defecto).
Ordena las entradas alfabéticamente si no se especifica ninguna de las opciones -cftuSUX ni --sort.

Or I could have set the value of LANG in the current environment and since it's exported it would be inherited by the child environment:

$ LANG=es_MX.utf8
$ grep --help | head -n 4
Modo de empleo: grep [OPCIÓN]... PATRÓN [FICHERO]...
Busca un PATRÓN en algún ARCHIVO o entrada estándar.
PATTERN es, por omisión, una expresión regular básica (BRE).
Ejemplo: grep -i '¡Hola, mundo!' menu.h main.c
$ sed --help | head -n 4
Uso: sed [OPCIÓN]... {guión-sólo-si-no-hay-otro-guión} [fichero-entrada]...

  -n, --quiet, --silent
                 suprime la muestra automática del espacio de patrones
$ while [[ = 4 ]]    # create an error on purpose to show Spanish error message
bash: se esperaba un operador binario condicional
bash: error sintáctico cerca de `4'

Edit:

Here is a simple script (let's call it showvars) so you can see what's going on both inside and outside.

#!/bin/bash
arguments="$@"
printf "The script has started.\n"
printf "These are the parameters passed to the script: [$arguments]\n"
scriptvar=100
printf "This is the value of scriptvar: [$scriptvar]\n"
printf "This is the value of exportvar: [$exportvar]\n"
printf "This is the value of shellvar: [$shellvar]\n"
printf "This is the value of commandvar: [$commandvar]\n"
printf "The script has ended.\n"

Now we do these steps at a shell prompt:

$ shellvar=200
$ export exportvar=300
$ ./showvars 400 $shellvar 500
The script has started.
These are the parameters passed to the script: [400 200 500]
This is the value of scriptvar: [100]
This is the value of exportvar: [300]
This is the value of shellvar: []
This is the value of commandvar: []
The script has ended.
$ commandvar=600 ./showvars 400 $shellvar 500
The script has started.
These are the parameters passed to the script: [400 200 500]
This is the value of scriptvar: [100]
This is the value of exportvar: [300]
This is the value of shellvar: []
This is the value of commandvar: [600]
The script has ended.
$ printf "This is the value of commandvar: [$commandvar]\n"
This is the value of commandvar: []
$ commandvar=600
$ ./showvars 400 $shellvar 500
The script has started.
These are the parameters passed to the script: [400 200 500]
This is the value of scriptvar: [100]
This is the value of exportvar: [300]
This is the value of shellvar: []
This is the value of commandvar: []
The script has ended.
$ printf "This is the value of scriptvar: [$scriptvar]\n"
This is the value of scriptvar: []
$ printf "This is the value of exportvar: [$exportvar]\n"
This is the value of exportvar: [300]
$ printf "This is the value of shellvar: [$shellvar]\n"
This is the value of shellvar: [200]
$ printf "This is the value of commandvar: [$commandvar]\n"
This is the value of commandvar: [600]

As you can see shellvar is not available inside the script and scriptvar is not available outside it. Since exportvar is exported, it's available both inside and outside the script. And commandvar is only available inside the script when it's passed on the command line when calling the script. If it's set in the interactive environment and then the script is called, it's available only in the interactive environment.