* Ben Hartshorne (debian_user@green.hartshorne.net) [021204 11:48]: > Does the shell keep separate lists of varibles it knows about and > variables it passes on to subshells? why? Something the other replies have not quite hit directly is that the environment is a concept greater than the shell. Every process is executed in some environment, usually one inherited from its parent process. The shell doesn't keep track of variables which get copied to the subshells; it's that when it makes the exec system call, the child process gets a copy of its environment. 'export' is a bash builtin to copy a shell variable into the shell's environment. To see a little bit more about what the environment is and how it's passed to children, and specifically how the PATH environment variable is used, see exec(3). good times, Vineet -- http://www.doorstop.net/ -- "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." --President Thomas Jefferson.
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