ENV(1) User Commands ENV(1)
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.
-a, --argv0=ARG
pass ARG as the zeroth argument of COMMAND
-i, --ignore-environment
start with an empty environment
-0, --null
end each output line with NUL, not newline
-u, --unset=NAME
remove variable from the environment
-C, --chdir=DIR
change working directory to DIR
-S, --split-string=S
process and split S into separate arguments; used to pass multiple
arguments on shebang lines
--block-signal[=SIG]
block delivery of SIG signal(s) to COMMAND
--default-signal[=SIG]
reset handling of SIG signal(s) to the default
--ignore-signal[=SIG]
set handling of SIG signal(s) to do nothing
--list-signal-handling
list non default signal handling to standard error
-v, --debug
print verbose information for each processing step
--help display this help and exit
--version
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
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/>
COPYRIGHT
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.
SEE ALSO
sigaction(2), sigprocmask(2), signal(7)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/env>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) env invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.10 February 2026 ENV(1)