getenv(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ATTRIBUTES | STANDARDS | HISTORY | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

getenv(3)               Library Functions Manual               getenv(3)

NAME         top

       getenv, secure_getenv - get an environment variable

LIBRARY         top

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <stdlib.h>

       char *getenv(const char *name);
       char *secure_getenv(const char *name);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
   feature_test_macros(7)):

       secure_getenv():
           _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       The getenv() function searches the environment list to find the
       environment variable name, and returns a pointer to the
       corresponding value string.

       The GNU-specific secure_getenv() function is just like getenv()
       except that it returns NULL in cases where "secure execution" is
       required.  Secure execution is required if one of the following
       conditions was true when the program run by the calling process
       was loaded:

       •  the process's effective user ID did not match its real user ID
          or the process's effective group ID did not match its real
          group ID (typically this is the result of executing a set-
          user-ID or set-group-ID program);

       •  the effective capability bit was set on the executable file;
          or

       •  the process has a nonempty permitted capability set.

       Secure execution may also be required if triggered by some Linux
       security modules.

       The secure_getenv() function is intended for use in general-
       purpose libraries to avoid vulnerabilities that could occur if
       set-user-ID or set-group-ID programs accidentally trusted the
       environment.

RETURN VALUE         top

       The getenv() function returns a pointer to the value in the
       environment, or NULL if there is no match.

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       ┌─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────┐
       │ Interface                       Attribute     Value       │
       ├─────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────┤
       │ getenv(), secure_getenv()       │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe env │
       └─────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────┘

STANDARDS         top

       getenv()
              C11, POSIX.1-2008.

       secure_getenv()
              GNU.

HISTORY         top

       getenv()
              POSIX.1-2001, C89, C99, SVr4, 4.3BSD.

       secure_getenv()
              glibc 2.17.

NOTES         top

       The strings in the environment list are of the form name=value.

       As typically implemented, getenv() returns a pointer to a string
       within the environment list.  The caller must take care not to
       modify this string, since that would change the environment of
       the process.

       The implementation of getenv() is not required to be reentrant.
       The string pointed to by the return value of getenv() may be
       statically allocated, and can be modified by a subsequent call to
       getenv(), putenv(3), setenv(3), or unsetenv(3).

       The "secure execution" mode of secure_getenv() is controlled by
       the AT_SECURE flag contained in the auxiliary vector passed from
       the kernel to user space.

SEE ALSO         top

       clearenv(3), getauxval(3), putenv(3), setenv(3), unsetenv(3),
       capabilities(7), environ(7)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the man-pages (Linux kernel and C library
       user-space interface documentation) project.  Information about
       the project can be found at 
       ⟨https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/⟩.  If you have a bug report
       for this manual page, see
       ⟨https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING⟩.
       This page was obtained from the tarball man-pages-6.9.1.tar.gz
       fetched from
       ⟨https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/⟩ on
       2024-06-26.  If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML
       version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-
       to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
       improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not
       part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Linux man-pages 6.9.1          2024-05-02                      getenv(3)

Pages that refer to this page: clearenv(3)getauxval(3)libsystemd(3)libudev(3)pmgetconfig(3)putenv(3)sd-bus(3)sd_bus_add_match(3)sd_bus_add_node_enumerator(3)sd_bus_add_object(3)sd_bus_add_object_manager(3)sd_bus_attach_event(3)sd_bus_call(3)sd_bus_call_method(3)sd_bus_can_send(3)sd_bus_close(3)sd_bus_creds_get_pid(3)sd_bus_creds_new_from_pid(3)sd_bus_default(3)sd_bus_emit_signal(3)sd_bus_enqueue_for_read(3)sd_bus_error(3)sd_bus_error_add_map(3)sd-bus-errors(3)sd_bus_get_current_handler(3)sd_bus_get_fd(3)sd_bus_get_name_creds(3)sd_bus_get_name_machine_id(3)sd_bus_interface_name_is_valid(3)sd_bus_is_open(3)sd_bus_list_names(3)sd_bus_message_append(3)sd_bus_message_append_array(3)sd_bus_message_append_basic(3)sd_bus_message_append_string_memfd(3)sd_bus_message_append_strv(3)sd_bus_message_at_end(3)sd_bus_message_copy(3)sd_bus_message_dump(3)sd_bus_message_get_cookie(3)sd_bus_message_get_monotonic_usec(3)sd_bus_message_get_signature(3)sd_bus_message_get_type(3)sd_bus_message_new(3)sd_bus_message_new_method_call(3)sd_bus_message_new_method_error(3)sd_bus_message_new_signal(3)sd_bus_message_open_container(3)sd_bus_message_read(3)sd_bus_message_rewind(3)sd_bus_message_seal(3)sd_bus_message_sensitive(3)sd_bus_message_set_destination(3)sd_bus_message_set_expect_reply(3)sd_bus_message_skip(3)sd_bus_message_verify_type(3)sd_bus_negotiate_fds(3)sd_bus_new(3)sd_bus_path_encode(3)sd_bus_pending_method_calls(3)sd_bus_process(3)sd_bus_query_sender_creds(3)sd_bus_reply_method_error(3)sd_bus_reply_method_return(3)sd_bus_request_name(3)sd_bus_send(3)sd_bus_set_address(3)sd_bus_set_close_on_exit(3)sd_bus_set_connected_signal(3)sd_bus_set_description(3)sd_bus_set_exit_on_disconnect(3)sd_bus_set_fd(3)sd_bus_set_method_call_timeout(3)sd_bus_set_property(3)sd_bus_set_sender(3)sd_bus_set_server(3)sd_bus_set_watch_bind(3)sd_bus_slot_get_bus(3)sd_bus_slot_ref(3)sd_bus_slot_set_description(3)sd_bus_slot_set_destroy_callback(3)sd_bus_slot_set_floating(3)sd_bus_slot_set_userdata(3)sd_bus_start(3)sd_bus_track_add_name(3)sd_bus_track_new(3)sd_bus_wait(3)sd-daemon(3)sd-device(3)sd_device_get_syspath(3)sd-event(3)sd_event_add_child(3)sd_event_add_defer(3)sd_event_add_inotify(3)sd_event_add_io(3)sd_event_add_memory_pressure(3)sd_event_add_signal(3)sd_event_add_time(3)sd_event_exit(3)sd_event_get_fd(3)sd_event_new(3)sd_event_now(3)sd_event_run(3)sd_event_set_signal_exit(3)sd_event_set_watchdog(3)sd_event_source_get_event(3)sd_event_source_get_pending(3)sd_event_source_set_description(3)sd_event_source_set_destroy_callback(3)sd_event_source_set_enabled(3)sd_event_source_set_exit_on_failure(3)sd_event_source_set_floating(3)sd_event_source_set_prepare(3)sd_event_source_set_priority(3)sd_event_source_set_ratelimit(3)sd_event_source_set_userdata(3)sd_event_source_unref(3)sd_event_wait(3)sd_get_seats(3)sd-hwdb(3)sd_hwdb_get(3)sd_hwdb_new(3)sd-id128(3)sd_id128_get_machine(3)sd_id128_randomize(3)sd_id128_to_string(3)sd-journal(3)sd_journal_add_match(3)sd_journal_print(3)sd-json(3)sd_listen_fds(3)sd-login(3)sd_login_monitor_new(3)sd_machine_get_class(3)sd_notify(3)sd_path_lookup(3)sd_seat_get_active(3)sd_session_is_active(3)sd_uid_get_state(3)sd_watchdog_enabled(3)setenv(3)tzset(3)attributes(7)environ(7)