Re: [dev] environment variables versus runtime configuration (rc) files versus X resources

From: Greg Reagle <greg.reagle_AT_umbc.edu>
Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 16:26:39 -0500

On Mon, Nov 3, 2014, at 04:11 PM, Charlie Kester wrote:
> Environment variables are essentially global variables, visible to every
> program and not just the one you want to configure.

Not necessarily. If you set them in .profile or .bashrc or .xsession
then yes, but each program processes its own rc file. Other programs
would not be affected. Of course the environment would be inherited by
any child processes, but I don't see a problem there. To use mutt as an
example, mutt would process .muttrc on startup (using environment
variables and a shell) so it wouldn't need its own cusom rc processing
code. Other programs would not see these variables, other than child
processes of mutt.

Just using mutt as an example here, not trying to pick on mutt. I just
need an example to make things more clear.

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Received on Mon Nov 03 2014 - 22:26:39 CET

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