5.5 KiB
Linux Environment Variables
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Global variables
The global variables will be inherited by child processes.
You can create a global variable for your current session doing:
export MYGLOBAL="hello world"
echo $MYGLOBAL #Prints: hello world
This variable will be accessible by your current sessions and its child processes.
You can remove a variable doing:
unset MYGLOBAL
Local variables
The local variables can only be accessed by the current shell/script.
LOCAL="my local"
echo $LOCAL
unset LOCAL
List current variables
set
env
printenv
cat /proc/$$/environ
cat /proc/`python -c "import os; print(os.getppid())"`/environ
Common variables
From: https://geek-university.com/linux/common-environment-variables/
- DISPLAY – the display used by X. This variable is usually set to :0.0, which means the first display on the current computer.
- EDITOR – the user’s preferred text editor.
- HISTFILESIZE – the maximum number of lines contained in the history file.
- HISTSIZE – Number of lines added to the history file when the user finish his session
- HOME – your home directory.
- HOSTNAME – the hostname of the computer.
- LANG – your current language.
- MAIL – the location of the user’s mail spool. Usually /var/spool/mail/USER.
- MANPATH – the list of directories to search for manual pages.
- OSTYPE – the type of operating system.
- PS1 – the default prompt in bash.
- PATH – stores the path of all the directories which holds binary files you want to execute just by specifying the name of the file and not by relative or absolute path.
- PWD – the current working directory.
- SHELL – the path to the current command shell (for example, /bin/bash).
- TERM – the current terminal type (for example, xterm).
- TZ – your time zone.
- USER – your current username.
Interesting variables for hacking
HISTFILESIZE
Change the value of this variable to 0, so when you end your session the history file (~/.bash_history) will be deleted.
export HISTFILESIZE=0
HISTSIZE
Change the value of this variable to 0, so when you end your session any command will be added to the history file (~/.bash_history).
export HISTSIZE=0
http_proxy & https_proxy
The processes will use the proxy declared here to connect to internet through http or https.
export http_proxy="http://10.10.10.10:8080"
export https_proxy="http://10.10.10.10:8080"
SSL_CERT_FILE & SSL_CERT_DIR
The processes will trust the certificates indicated in these env variables.
export SSL_CERT_FILE=/path/to/ca-bundle.pem
export SSL_CERT_DIR=/path/to/ca-certificates
PS1
Change how your prompt looks.
Root:
Regular user:
One, two and three backgrounded jobs:
One background job, one stopped and last command didn't finish correctly:
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Support HackTricks
- Check the subscription plans!
- Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow us on Twitter 🐦 @hacktricks_live.
- Share hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the HackTricks and HackTricks Cloud github repos.