Variables

Variables in the Shell

When a variable is first used you assign it a value with an equals sign like this:

myvariable="Hello"

When you want to access the variable, put a dollar sign in front of it:

echo $myvariable
Hello

There are also built-in variables like:

• $HOME
• $PATH
• $USER or $USERNAME
• $OSTYPE
• $LINES
• $SHELL
• $COLUMNS

For example, to find your home directory, you can type echo $HOME, or use it in a script. The following line will download the source code from the URL http://www.example.com/ and save it to the Desktop of the current user:

lynx -source "http://www.example.com/" > $HOME/Desktop/example.html