VARSYM(1)

NAME
varsym - get and set user and system-wide variables for variant symlinks

SYNOPSIS
varsym [-adpqsux] [ var[=data] ...]
varsym -x [ var[=data] ...] command args

DESCRIPTION
The varsym program manages user and system-wide variables. These variables are typically used by the system to resolve variant symlinks but may also be used generally.

For each operand set, modify, retrieve, or delete the specified variable. By default variables specified without data are retrieved and variables specified with data are set. Variables may be set to empty.

-a  List all variables at the specified level. Note that per-process variables override per-user variables and per-user variables override system-wide variables. By default, per-user variables are listed.

-d  Delete mode. The specified variables are deleted. Any specified data is ignored.

-p  This option causes variables to be set on a per-process basis and restricts retrievals to process-specific variables. Note that since varsym is run as its own process, using this option to set a variable will not affect your shell's namespace. Instead you might want to use the -x option to set local varsyms and exec a command.

-q  Quiet mode. When retrieving a variable only its data is printed.

-s  This option causes variables to be set system-wide and restricts retrievals to system-specific variables.

-u  This option causes variables to be set on a per-user-id basis and restricts retrievals to user-specific variables. This is the default unless -x is used.

-x  This option causes variables to be set only within the varsym process and its children, and also allows you to specify a command and arguments to exec after the var=data specifications.

EXIT STATUS
The varsym utility exits with one of the following values:

0   No errors occurred.

1   A requested variable could not be found

2   A requested variable could not be set

SEE ALSO
ln(1), varsym(2), varsym.conf(5)