PRINTENV(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 27 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 PRINTENV ✨

okay so bestie, printenv is a User Commands girly from the GNU coreutils family, and she's here to spill the tea on your environment variables. no cap.

🌸 NAME 🌸

printenv — print all or part of environment. that's it, that's the whole job, and she ate 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

printenv [OPTION] [VARIABLE]...

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so what she does is print the values of the specified environment VARIABLE(s). you hand her a variable name, she hands you back its value. simple. iconic.

and if you specify no VARIABLE at all? she's like "bet" and prints name and value pairs for them all. the whole entire environment. every last one. main character energy fr fr.

now the options, bestie, there are literally only three so this is gonna be quick:

  • -0, --null — end each output line with NUL, not newline. that's a NUL byte, not a \n. you know, for when you're piping into something that wants NUL-separated input. iykyk 🦋
  • --help — display this help and exit. she tells you how she works and then dips 👋
  • --version — output version information and exit. she tells you how old she is and then dips 💀
⚠️ okay important heads up bestie: your shell may have its own version of printenv, which usually supersedes the version described here. like, it might not even be this printenv you're talking to. so please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports. don't come for me if your shell's version acts different, i literally warned you 🫶

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by David MacKenzie and Richard Mlynarik. legends, honestly. we stan. 🌈

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? not her fault but also please tell someone:

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. 😭 like literally none. zero. nada. she's free and she's yours but she promises nothing. periodt.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and print those env vars 💖✨

this has been GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026, and that's on PRINTENV(1) — stay slay, stay curious, and always quote your variables 🎀🦋

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