Shell Environment Variables and Common System Variables
This article introduces Linux shell environment variables, demonstrates how to display common built‑in variables such as PWD, HOME, HOSTNAME, BASH_VERSION, BASH_VERSINFO, GROUPS, SHELL, and UID using echo commands, and explains the use of env to view all variables and export to set them.
Shell environment variables are special variables that store system and user information for the shell.
Common built‑in variables include: echo $PWD – prints the current working directory, e.g., /root. echo $HOME – prints the home directory of the current user, e.g., /root. echo $HOSTNAME – prints the host name of the machine, e.g., node1. echo $BASH_VERSION – prints the version string of Bash, e.g., 4.2.46(1)-release. echo $BASH_VERSINFO – prints the major version number, e.g., 4. echo $GROUPS – prints the group IDs the user belongs to, e.g., 0. echo $SHELL – prints the path to the current shell executable, e.g., /bin/bash. echo $UID – prints the numeric user identifier, e.g., 0 for root.
Use the env command to list all current environment variables, and the export command to set or modify them.
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