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Diffstat (limited to 'doc/gawk.texi')
| -rw-r--r-- | doc/gawk.texi | 16 |
1 files changed, 12 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/doc/gawk.texi b/doc/gawk.texi index 13a823b9..1c09a5bc 100644 --- a/doc/gawk.texi +++ b/doc/gawk.texi @@ -13647,10 +13647,18 @@ it is not special. An associative array containing the values of the environment. The array indices are the environment variable names; the elements are the values of the particular environment variables. For example, -@code{ENVIRON["HOME"]} might be @file{/home/arnold}. Changing this array -does not affect the environment passed on to any programs that -@command{awk} may spawn via redirection or the @code{system()} function. -@c (In a future version of @command{gawk}, it may do so.) +@code{ENVIRON["HOME"]} might be @file{/home/arnold}. + +For POSIX @command{awk}, changing this array does not affect the +environment passed on to any programs that @command{awk} may spawn via +redirection or the @code{system()} function. + +However, beginning with @value{PVERSION} 4.2, if not in POSIX +compatibility mode, @command{gawk} does update its own environment when +@code{ENVIRON} is changed, thus changing the environment seen by programs +that it creates. You should therefore be especially careful if you +modify @code{ENVIRON["PATH"]"}, which is the search path for finding +executable programs. Some operating systems may not have environment variables. On such systems, the @code{ENVIRON} array is empty (except for |