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Bourne Shell Variables

Bash uses certain shell variables in the same way as the Bourne shell. In some cases, Bash assigns a default value to the variable.

IFS
A list of characters that separate fields; used when the shell splits words as part of expansion.

PATH
A colon-separated list of directories in which the shell looks for commands.

HOME
The current user's home directory.

CDPATH
A colon-separated list of directories used as a search path for the cd command.

MAILPATH
A colon-separated list of files which the shell periodically checks for new mail. You can also specify what message is printed by separating the file name from the message with a `?'. When used in the text of the message, $_ stands for the name of the current mailfile.

PS1
The primary prompt string.

PS2
The secondary prompt string.

OPTIND
The index of the last option processed by the getopts builtin.

OPTARG
The value of the last option argument processed by the getopts builtin.

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