opensolaris man page for getenv

getenv(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 						getenv(3C)

NAME
       getenv - return value for environment name

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdlib.h>

       char *getenv(const char *name);

DESCRIPTION
       The  getenv()  function	searches  the environment list (see environ(5)) for a string of the form name=value and, if the string is present,
       returns a pointer to the value in the current environment.

RETURN VALUES
       If successful, getenv() returns a pointer to the value in the current environment; otherwise, it returns a null pointer.

USAGE
       The getenv() function can be safely called from a multithreaded	application.   Care  must  be  exercised  when	using  both  getenv()  and
       putenv(3C)  in  a multithreaded application.  These functions examine and modify the environment list, which is shared by all threads in an
       application.  The system prevents the list from being accessed simultaneously by two different threads.	It does not, however, prevent  two
       threads from successively accessing the environment list using  getenv() or putenv(3C).

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO
       exec(2), putenv(3C), attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.11							    24 Jul 2002 							getenv(3C)