setenv/putenv/unsetenv.

[mcdonald at uxe.cso.uiuc.edu]

>Sure it's simple, but that's not the point.  The environment is something
>pretty basic.  Isn't it about time we started dealing with as many such basic
>things as possible through a layer of primitives??  It is quite surprising how
>many vendors of quite diverse operating systems are either talking about or
>actually promising POSIX compatibility, even though the underlying kernels
>don't look even vaguely like UNIX.  (VMS, OS/2, ...)  What are these people
>supposed to do?  If the primitive to set an environment variable isn't in the
>standard then you will get just the kind of problems with variant versions and
>portability troubles that the standard is supposed to prevent.
-
POSIX and similar standards are not intended as definition of a useable
system. They are intended for such purposes as allowing the government
to specify an operating system in a procurement spec without 
generating lawsuits. Real operating systems will always need lots
of extensions .