Predefined Variables
Sorted by Name

Legend for this table:

COURIER	A setenv environmental variable. Environmental variables are passed to any child processes or screens you create by invoking an external utility or application. When Hamilton C shell starts up it looks for the ones shown here to be defined in the environment it inherits; if they’re not already defined, the shell creates them.
bold	A set variable shared by all threads: if one makes a change, all will see it.
normal	Each thread gets its own copy but the initial value is inherited from its parent.
italics	Each thread gets its own copy but the initialization is always to a defined value.

Name	Default	Use
$		A synonym for the processid variable.
*		A synonym for the argv variable.
<		A synonym for the getline variable.
@		A synonym for the stmtnumber variable.
ADDITIONS	Bright White on Green	Lines added found by diff.
argv		Any argument words passed to the shell or to a .csh batch file.
ASCIICONVERT	Bright Yellow	ASCII files which received line end conversions by tar.
bsdargv	0	If set, $argv[0] contains the name of the script, just as it would under the original Berkeley C shell; by default, $argv[0] is the first argument word.
bsdhistory	0	By default, “!!” is the immediately preceding command and “!-1” is the one before that. Setting bsdhistory = 1 makes them the same.
cdhome	0	If set, “cd” with no argument is the same as “cd $home”; default is to simply print the current directory name.
cdisk		Current disk, not including colon.
CDISK		Same as cdisk, but in upper case.
CDPATH		List of directories to search for the subdirectory specified as the new current directory.
cdpath	null	Same as the CDPATH environmental variable, broken into words.
chgdisk	0	If set, cd automatically changes the current disk setting if the path is on another disk.
child	0	Identification number of the last child process spawned.
COLORS	null	Normal screen colors.
COMSPEC		Usually, this is the pathname of cmd. If you set it to point to the C shell, e.g., so other programs will invoke the C shell rather than cmd.exe, the C shell will try to look through the search path for cmd.exe if it needs to run a .cmd file.
CSHOPTIONS		Default set of command line options to be pasted ahead of any other command line options passed to csh.exe.
CSHTITLE		Template for the title bar. Setting it to a null string causes the title bar inherited at startup to be displayed. Unsetting it causes “Hamilton C shell” to be displayed. Other values will be evaluated for command and variable substitutions the same way the prompt variables are interpreted.
cshtitle		Same as the CSHTITLE environmental variable.
cwd		Full pathname of the current directory.
DELETIONS	Bright White on Red	Lines deleted found by diff.
DIRECTORIES	Bright	Directories listed by ls.
DUPLICATES	Green	When filename completion matches more than one name.
DRIVEMASK		Used by du, pwd and vol and by drive wildcarding (e.g., “*:foo.*”) to limit the default list of drives it will report on. Written as a list of alphabetic characters representing the drives you want listed; ranges are allowed. If you don’t define this variable, all drives beginning with C: are normally reported.
echoallinput	0	Copy the input to stdout as it’s read. (Similar to echoinput, but inherited from parent to child threads.)
echoinput	0	Copy the input to stdout as it’s read. (Similar to echoallinput but not inherited to a child thread.)
eofgetline	0	Pseudo-variable to indicate if the last reference to getline encountered an end-of-file condition.
ESCAPESYM	^	Character to be interpreted as a literal escape character. Placed in the environment only if it is not the default circumflex.
escapesym	^	Same as the ESCAPESYM environmental variable.
FOREIGNFILES	Bright Red	Filetypes in a tar file that have no counterparts on Windows.
getchar		Read one character from stdin without echoing. If stdin is tied to the keyboard, outboard keys are returned as two-character strings.
getline		Read one line from stdin pseudo-variable. If stdin is tied to the keyboard, keystrokes are echoed as they’re typed.
gotowindow	50	Number of statements a goto can jump over (when not inside a nested block) without being considered an error.
HIGHLIGHT	Bright	Current disk or directory.
histchars	!%	Characters which introduce long-form and short-form history references, respectively.
history	0	Number of statements to remember on the history list; 0 turns off the history mechanism. (If the thread is interactive, history is automatically set to 100.)
HOME		Home directory (default is the initial current directory.)
home		Same as the HOME environmental variable.
ignoreeof	0	If True, don’t exit at EOF on stdin; insist on an exit command.
ignoreerrors	0	Determine whether execution should continue if an error occurs: 0 means the thread exits; 1 (the default for an interactive thread) means exit from loops or procedures and try to read a new command; 2 means ignore all errors.
ignorestatus	1	If True, a non-zero status code from a child process is ignored. Otherwise, it’s an error.
interactive	0	If True, prompt for input.
irqmask	0	Determines whether interrupts are enabled (0), deferred until the mask is cleared again (1) or ignored (2).
LATITUDE		Latitude setting used by sunrise.csh to calculate sunrise and sunset times..
LONGITUDE		Longitude setting used by sunrise.csh to calculate sunrise and sunset times..
LSOPTIONS		Default set of command line options to be pasted ahead of any other command line options passed to ls.
MATCHFAIL	Bright Red	When filename or command completion doesn’t match anything.
MIXEDCASEDRIVES		List of drives and UNC names for which ls, pwd, wildcarding and the fullname and current directory functions should report filenames in mixed case rather than all lower case.
MOREEOF	Green	End or Top of File in more.
MOREERROR	Bright White on Red	Unrecognizable command to more.
MOREFILLIN	Black	User response to more prompt.
MOREPROMPT	Red on White	Prompt line in more.
MORETOPMEM	Bright Yellow	Top of Memory message from more.
nohashing	0	Determine how/whether path hashing is done: 0 means full path hashing of the directories on the search path; 1 means turn off hashing completely; 2 means hash only the directories which do not depend on the setting of the current directory.
noclobber	0	If True, don’t allow redirection to overwrite an existing file unless the “!” override is given.
noglob		A synonym for the nowild variable.
nonohidden	0	Determine whether wildcarding will match against hidden files: 0 means don’t match hidden files; 1 means hidden files will be found.
nonomatch	0	Determine the response to a wildcard that doesn’t match anything: 0 means it’s an error; 1 means pass it through to the application; 2 means simply discard it.
nonovar	0	Determine the response to a non-existent variable, procedure or alias. Same encoding as nonomatch.
nowild	0	If True, turn off filename wildcarding.
NTVersion		Obsolete name for the WinBuild variable.
nullwords	0	Determines whether an array index off the end of a list is an error (0) or returns a null word (1).
OperatingSystem		Name of the operating system on which the shell is running. Possible values are “Windows NT” and “Windows 9x”.
PATH		Search path for executable files.
path		Same as the PATH environmental variable, broken into words.
precision	6	Number of decimal places to print when displaying floating point values.
processid		The unique process ID assigned by the Windows kernel to this copy of the C shell.
PROMPT1	$@ $CDISK%	Primary command prompt template.
prompt1		Same as the PROMPT1 environmental variable.
PROMPT2	$@ $CDISK?	Continuation line prompt template.
prompt2		Same as the PROMPT2 environmental variable.
RADIX	16	Default radix used by more and other utilities when displaying binary data.
READONLYDIRS		Used by ls and other utilities for directories marked read-only.
READONLYFILES		Used by ls and other utilities for files marked read-only.
savehist	0	Save the history contents into history.csh in the home directory.
scripted		Tells whether this thread is running or called from a script (1) or not (0).
scriptname		Name of the C shell script file being executed, if any.
SHELL		Always set to the pathname of the Hamilton C shell csh.exe file.
shell		Same as the SHELL environmental variable.
status	0	Exit code of the last child process.
stmtnumber	1	Autoincremented statement number used with the history list and in prompting.
SWITCHCHARS	-/	Characters that can be used as option introducers for the shell and utilities.
SYSTEMDIRS	Bright Green	Used by ls for directories with the System bit on.
SYSTEMFILES	Green	Used by ls for files with the System bit on.
TABS	8	Used by more to tell it how many character positions there are between tab stops.
tailstatus	0	Determines whether the status variable will reflect the reflect the return code from the leftmost or rightmost stage of a pipeline: 0 means leftmost; 1 means rightmost.
TAPE	\\.\tape0	Used by mt under Windows to specify the pathname of the default tape drive.
TARASCII		Used by tar to identify files, using a list of wildcards, that should be considered as ASCII, regardless of content.
TARBINARY		Used by tar to identify files, using a list of wildcards, that should be considered as binary, regardless of content.
threadid		Thread id of the currently executing thread.
verbose	0	If True, print out all available information when reporting errors.
WinBuild		Build number of the Windows system on which the shell is running, e.g., 2600 for Windows XP.
WinVersion		Version number of the Windows API on which the shell is running, e.g., 5.1 for Windows XP