EXPORT(1) General Commands Manual EXPORT(1)

exportset export attribute for variables

export name[=word]. . .

export -p The shell shall give the export attribute to the variables corresponding to the specified names, which shall cause them to be in the environment of subsequently executed commands. When −p is specified, export shall write to the standard output the names and values of all exported variables, in the following format:

" export %s=%s\n", <name>, <value> The shell shall format the output, including the proper use of quoting, so that it is suitable for re-input to the shell as commands that achieve the same exporting results. The export special built-in shall conform to the utility argument syntax guidelines described in 2.10.2.

Zero.

When no arguments are given, the results are unspecified. Some historical shells use the no-argument case as the functional equivalent of what is required here with −p. This feature was left unspecified because it is not existing practice in all shells and some scripts may rely on the now-unspecified results on their implementations. Attempts to specify the −p output as the default case were unsuccessful in achieving consensus. The −p option was added to allow portable access to the values that can be saved and then later restored using, for instance, a dot script. Examples: Export PWD and HOME variables: export PWD HOME Set and export the PATH variable:

export PATH =/local/bin:$ PATH Save and restore all exported variables: export -p > temp-file unset a lot of variables . . . processing . temp-file

September 1991 posix.fail