accessing shell variables from within awk?

[Rich Scott]

	How can I access a shell variable (to wit, a few environment
variables) from within "awk"? I've tried various combinations of
shell quoting, and whatnot, to no avail. Does any version of awk
have a shortcut to get at it's environment? BTW, I'm running SunOS
3.5, if it matters much.

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