Provided by: manpages-pt-dev_20040726-2_all
putenv - change or add an environment variable
int putenv(const char *string);
The putenv() function adds or changes the value of environment
variables. The argument string is of the form name=value. If name
does not already exist in the environment, then string is added to the
environment. If name does exist, then the value of name in the
environment is changed to value. The string pointed to by string
becomes part of the environment, so altering the string changes the
The putenv() function returns zero on success, or -1 if an error
ENOMEM Insufficient space to allocate new environment.
The putenv() function is not required to be reentrant, and the one in
libc4, libc5 and glibc2.0 is not, but the glibc2.1 version is.
Description for libc4, libc5, glibc: If the argument string is of the
form name, and does not contain an ‘=’ character, then the variable
name is removed from the environment. If putenv() has to allocate a
new array environ, and the previous array was also allocated by
putenv(), then it will be freed. In no case will the old storage
associated to the environment variable itself be freed.
The libc4 and libc5 and glibc 2.1.2 versions conform to SUSv2: the
pointer string given to putenv() is used. In particular, this string
becomes part of the environment; changing it later will change the
environment. (Thus, it is an error is to call putenv() with an
automatic variable as the argument, then return from the calling
function while string is still part of the environment.) However,
glibc 2.0-2.1.1 differs: a copy of the string is used. On the one hand
this causes a memory leak, and on the other hand it violates SUSv2.
This has been fixed in glibc2.1.2.
The BSD4.4 version, like glibc 2.0, uses a copy.
SUSv2 removes the ‘const’ from the prototype, and so does glibc 2.1.3.
SVID 3, POSIX, BSD 4.3
getenv(3), setenv(3), unsetenv(3), environ(5)