ENV

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

env - run a program in a modified environment  

SYNOPSIS

env [,OPTION/]... [,-/] [,NAME=VALUE/]... [,COMMAND /[,ARG/]...]  

DESCRIPTION

Set each NAME to VALUE in the environment and run COMMAND.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-a'-a, --argv0=,ARGX'tty: link'/

pass ARG as the zeroth argument of COMMAND

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-i'-i, --ignore-environmentX'tty: link'

start with an empty environment

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-0'-0, --nullX'tty: link'

end each output line with NUL, not newline

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-u'-u, --unset=,NAMEX'tty: link'/

remove variable from the environment

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-C'-C, --chdir=,DIRX'tty: link'/

change working directory to DIR

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-S'-S, --split-string=,SX'tty: link'/

process and split S into separate arguments; used to pass multiple arguments on shebang lines

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-bloc-signal'--block-signal[=SIG]X'tty: link'

block delivery of SIG signal(s) to COMMAND

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-defaul-signal'--default-signal[=SIG]X'tty: link'

reset handling of SIG signal(s) to the default

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-ignor-signal'--ignore-signal[=SIG]X'tty: link'

set handling of SIG signal(s) to do nothing

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-lis-signa-handling'--list-signal-handlingX'tty: link'

list non default signal handling to standard error

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#en-v'-v, --debugX'tty: link'

print verbose information for each processing step

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/env#en-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/env#en-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

A mere - implies -i. If no COMMAND, print the resulting environment.

SIG may be a signal name like 'PIPE', or a signal number like '13'. Without SIG, all known signals are included. Multiple signals can be comma-separated. An empty SIG argument is a no-op.  

Exit status:

125

if the env command itself fails

126

if COMMAND is found but cannot be invoked

127

if COMMAND cannot be found

-

the exit status of COMMAND otherwise

 

SCRIPT OPTION HANDLING

The -S option allows specifying multiple arguments in a script. Running a script named 1.pl containing the following first line:

#!/usr/bin/env -S perl -w -T
...

Will execute perl -w -T 1.pl

Without the '-S' parameter the script will likely fail with:

/usr/bin/env: 'perl -w -T': No such file or directory

See the full documentation for more details.

 

NOTES

POSIX's exec(3p) pages says:

"many existing applications wrongly assume that they start with certain signals set to the default action and/or unblocked.... Therefore, it is best not to block or ignore signals across execs without explicit reason to do so, and especially not to block signals across execs of arbitrary (not closely cooperating) programs."

 

AUTHOR

Written by Richard Mlynarik, David MacKenzie, and Assaf Gordon.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

sigaction(2), sigprocmask(2), signal(7)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/env>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) env invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
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.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Exit status:

SCRIPT OPTION HANDLING

NOTES

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO