UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hello,

I am relatively new to the world of programming in general and to the UNIX System in particular. I have a bunch of theoretical questions related to terminology which I have come across in my coursebooks. I hope I post my question at the right place. Any help would be warmly welcome!

Shell variables-

In my coursebook shells in general are divided into 2 different types:
Environment and Shell variables. I find it hard to understand the idea behind each type of shell as well as the difference between the two types.
Secondly, the term exporting a shell is used several times and I cannot really understand the meaning of Exporting.

Thanks once again!

There is no idea behind a shell but a developper (Bourne, Korn etc...)
the true shell at the beginning was sh, but some people wanted more... so the differences are in functionalities...
But they all have in common what is known as environment and shell variables

---------- Post updated at 19:27 ---------- Previous update was at 19:24 ----------

Your environment is what you see when you type env
The variables that are set here follow the format:
VARIABLE-NAME=value

---------- Post updated at 19:32 ---------- Previous update was at 19:27 ----------

about export, look:

Code:

# check the is no variable TITI beeing used...
ant:/home/vbe $ echo $TITI

ant:/home/vbe $ TITI=toto
ant:/home/vbe $ echo $TITI
toto
ant:/home/vbe $ sh
ant:/home/vbe $ echo $TITI

ant:/home/vbe $ exit
ant:/home/vbe $ echo $TITI
toto
ant:/home/vbe $