UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I never undestood exactly what's the difference between the SET and SETENV commands.

One sets variables visible to all users and the other (SETENV) only to the specific user environment ?

Thanks in advance,

BraZil - thE heLL iS HEre !!!

I think that SETENV may be more of C-shell specific thing. According to O'Reilly, SETENV assigns a value to an environment variable. If no arguments are provided, then setenv will produce a list of all names and values in the current environment. The SET command, sets a variable equal to a value. With no arguments, it displays the names and values of all set variables.

C Shell, maintains a set of environment variables which are distinct from the shell variables and arent really part of the C shell. Shell variables are meaningful only within the current shell, but environement varialbes are automatically exported, making them available globally. C shell variables are only available to a particular script in which they are defined, where as environment variables can be used by any shell script, mail utility or editors that you may invoke. (OReilly, UNIX In A NutShell)

Korn/Bourne shells dont have the SETENV command (I dont think anyway)

In korn/bourne you export a variable to get it into the environment.