You can read all the environment variables via the irb using the “ENV” command:
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Here the keys are in capital and the values are in string.
Alternatively we could use “pretty print” (pp) which comes with the Ruby standard library:
$ irb irb(main):001:0> pp ENV.sort NoMethodError: undefined method `pp' for main:Object from (irb):1 from /usr/bin/irb:12:in `'
This didn’t work because pp needs be required first:
irb(main):006:0* require 'pp' => true irb(main):007:0> pp ENV.sort [["COLUMNS", "188"], ["HISTCONTROL", "ignoredups"], ["HISTSIZE", "1000"], ["HOME", "/root"], ["HOSTNAME", "puppetmaster.local"], ["LANG", "en_GB.UTF-8"], ["LESSOPEN", "||/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s"], ["LINES", "58"], ["LOGNAME", "root"], . . ...etc.
Another option is to exit out of IRB and then install a gem called “awesome_print” and then use that tool instead:
$ gem install awesome_print Fetching: awesome_print-1.6.1.gem (100%) Successfully installed awesome_print-1.6.1 Parsing documentation for awesome_print-1.6.1 Installing ri documentation for awesome_print-1.6.1 1 gem installed $ $ $ irb(main):080:0* awesome_print ENV { "XDG_SESSION_ID" => "2637", "HOSTNAME" => "puppetmaster.local", "SELINUX_ROLE_REQUESTED" => "", "TERM" => "xterm", "SHELL" => "/bin/bash", "HISTSIZE" => "1000", "SSH_CLIENT" => "192.168.50.1 57615 22", "SELINUX_USE_CURRENT_RANGE" => "", "SSH_TTY" => "/dev/pts/3", "USER" => "root", . . . } => nil
You can also create environment variables using the following syntax:
ENV['key'] = 'value'
For example:
[root@puppetmaster pod_env]# irb 1.9.3-p551 :002 > require 'awesome_print' => true 1.9.3-p551 :003 > awesome_print ENV { "rvm_bin_path" => "/usr/local/rvm/bin", "HOSTNAME" => "puppetmaster.ordsvy.gov.uk", "GEM_HOME" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551", "SHELL" => "/bin/bash", "TERM" => "xterm", "HISTSIZE" => "1000", "IRBRC" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/.irbrc", "QTDIR" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3", "OLDPWD" => "/git_source/puppet/environments/dev_virtualbox_v2/modules", "MY_RUBY_HOME" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551", "QTINC" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/include", "USER" => "root", "LS_COLORS" => "rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=01;05;37;41:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=01;36:*.au=01;36:*.flac=01;36:*.mid=01;36:*.midi=01;36:*.mka=01;36:*.mp3=01;36:*.mpc=01;36:*.ogg=01;36:*.ra=01;36:*.wav=01;36:*.axa=01;36:*.oga=01;36:*.spx=01;36:*.xspf=01;36:", "_system_type" => "Linux", "rvm_path" => "/usr/local/rvm", "rvm_prefix" => "/usr/local", "MAIL" => "/var/spool/mail/root", "PATH" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551@global/bin:/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin:/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/rvm/bin:/root/bin", "PWD" => "/git_source/puppet/environments/dev_virtualbox_v2/modules/pod_env", "LANG" => "en_US.UTF-8", "_system_arch" => "x86_64", "_system_version" => "6", "SSH_ASKPASS" => "/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass", "HISTCONTROL" => "ignoredups", "rvm_version" => "1.26.3 (latest)", "SHLVL" => "1", "HOME" => "/root", "LOGNAME" => "root", "QTLIB" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/lib", "CVS_RSH" => "ssh", "GEM_PATH" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551@global", "LESSOPEN" => "|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s", "DISPLAY" => ":0.0", "RUBY_VERSION" => "ruby-1.9.3-p551", "_system_name" => "RedHat", "G_BROKEN_FILENAMES" => "1", "XAUTHORITY" => "/root/.xauthZ90kSk", "_" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin/irb", "LINES" => "60", "COLUMNS" => "237" } => nil 1.9.3-p551 :004 > puts ENV['EDITOR'] => nil 1.9.3-p551 :005 > ENV['EDITOR'] = 'gedit' => "gedit" 1.9.3-p551 :006 > puts ENV['EDITOR'] gedit => nil 1.9.3-p551 :007 > 1.9.3-p551 :007 > awesome_print ENV { "rvm_bin_path" => "/usr/local/rvm/bin", "HOSTNAME" => "puppetmaster.ordsvy.gov.uk", "GEM_HOME" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551", "SHELL" => "/bin/bash", "TERM" => "xterm", "HISTSIZE" => "1000", "IRBRC" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/.irbrc", "QTDIR" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3", "OLDPWD" => "/git_source/puppet/environments/dev_virtualbox_v2/modules", "MY_RUBY_HOME" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551", "QTINC" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/include", "USER" => "root", "LS_COLORS" => "rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=01;05;37;41:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.lzma=01;31:*.tlz=01;31:*.txz=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.dz=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.lz=01;31:*.xz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.tbz=01;31:*.tbz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.rar=01;31:*.ace=01;31:*.zoo=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.7z=01;31:*.rz=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.svg=01;35:*.svgz=01;35:*.mng=01;35:*.pcx=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.m2v=01;35:*.mkv=01;35:*.ogm=01;35:*.mp4=01;35:*.m4v=01;35:*.mp4v=01;35:*.vob=01;35:*.qt=01;35:*.nuv=01;35:*.wmv=01;35:*.asf=01;35:*.rm=01;35:*.rmvb=01;35:*.flc=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.flv=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.yuv=01;35:*.cgm=01;35:*.emf=01;35:*.axv=01;35:*.anx=01;35:*.ogv=01;35:*.ogx=01;35:*.aac=01;36:*.au=01;36:*.flac=01;36:*.mid=01;36:*.midi=01;36:*.mka=01;36:*.mp3=01;36:*.mpc=01;36:*.ogg=01;36:*.ra=01;36:*.wav=01;36:*.axa=01;36:*.oga=01;36:*.spx=01;36:*.xspf=01;36:", "_system_type" => "Linux", "rvm_path" => "/usr/local/rvm", "rvm_prefix" => "/usr/local", "MAIL" => "/var/spool/mail/root", "PATH" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551@global/bin:/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin:/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/rvm/bin:/root/bin", "PWD" => "/git_source/puppet/environments/dev_virtualbox_v2/modules/pod_env", "LANG" => "en_US.UTF-8", "_system_arch" => "x86_64", "_system_version" => "6", "SSH_ASKPASS" => "/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass", "HISTCONTROL" => "ignoredups", "rvm_version" => "1.26.3 (latest)", "SHLVL" => "1", "HOME" => "/root", "LOGNAME" => "root", "QTLIB" => "/usr/lib64/qt-3.3/lib", "CVS_RSH" => "ssh", "GEM_PATH" => "/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551:/usr/local/rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.3-p551@global", "LESSOPEN" => "|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s", "DISPLAY" => ":0.0", "RUBY_VERSION" => "ruby-1.9.3-p551", "_system_name" => "RedHat", "G_BROKEN_FILENAMES" => "1", "XAUTHORITY" => "/root/.xauthZ90kSk", "_" => "/usr/local/rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.3-p551/bin/irb", "LINES" => "60", "COLUMNS" => "237", "EDITOR" => "gedit" } => nil 1.9.3-p551 :008 >
Note, here that this environment variable only lasts for as long as the irb session. As soon as you restart irb, it disappears again.