Re:Don’t use environment variables for configuration
by kodah on Thursday April 01, 2021 @08:51PM
(#26668084)
Depending on the variable, sure, but that's a wide latitude in the interpretation of "global". They're not linked or the same memory in any form or fashion. They're merely identical in value.
Re:Don’t use environment variables for configuration
by michaelmior on Friday April 02, 2021 @10:22AM
(#26671643)
True. I was thinking in the context of software deployments where environment variables are commonly used as read-only configuration values once the deployment is made.
Obviously this is true in a sense. But for practical purposes, it depends on how the environment variables are set. For example, if I set them in my ~/.bash_profile, they're scoped to all bash processes that my current user runs. If I put them in /etc/profile, they're effectively global.