I saw a unix shell script in which export command is used like this :
export filename
what is a file exported for ?

thanks
srini

Actually, the way to think of it is that variables are exported. And a variable gets exported to the environment. This means that child processes will be able to access it. The PATH variable was exported for you. View it with:
echo $PATH
You may have commands like env or printenv that can display the entire environment.

Hi Perderabo,
Thanks for your reply.But in that script i see that they have used it to export a filename....I agree that export is used so that the child shell can also have access to the variables.And i also agree what u said about the path varible being exported.And i see that the file name is either a actual filename or a directory path.
So what is the reason to do this ?
Thanks in advance
sveera

I command like "export filename" defines a variable called "filename" and sets the export flag. This would only be useful if a
filename=something
statement followed or preceded.

This assumes ksh or bash. And it assumes that "export" was not redefined. It's possible that the author of the script made an error.

Thank you Perderabo.
bye
sveera