C Reference function getenv()

The function getenv() of the stdlib.h will get the environment string.

Usage of getenv():

char * getenv ( const char * name );

The function will retrieve a C string that is containing a value of the environment variable, which is specified with the name argument.

Parameters:

The name of the variable that you want to get.

Return value:


If the requested variable is not part of the environment list, the function returns a NULL pointer.

Source code example of getenv():


	#include<stdio.h>
	#include<stdlib.h>

	int main ()
	{
		char * ptr_path;
		ptr_path = getenv ("PATH");

		if (ptr_path!=NULL)
			printf ("The set path is: %s",ptr_path);

		return 0;
	}
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There are currently 4 responses to “C Reference function getenv()”

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  1. sivaraman on January 12th, 2012:

    Please explain a case in which getenv() is
    successful. here PATH is not found for getenv(). SO it will return NULL.

  2. admin on January 12th, 2012:

    @sivaraman – That is not correct, if null is returned then no environment path is found. If it is not null then an environment path is found. If I compile the sample then the output on a Windows 7 system is:

    The set path is: C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\ImageConverter Plus\Microsoft.VC90.CRT;C:\Program Files (x86)\ImageConverter Plus\Microsoft.VC90.MFC;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\;C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\Core-Static

    So the example works. I hope that this helps you.

  3. Mark L. on January 4th, 2013:

    The title of the code example says:
    “Source code example of abort():”

    This is a copy/paste problem. It should say “Source code example of getenv():”

    this page is about getenv(), not abort()

  4. admin on January 6th, 2013:

    @Mark L. : thx, i’ve changed the typo from abort() to getenv()