I'm starting to use PowerShell and am trying to figure out how to echo
a system environment variable to the console to read it.
Neither of the below are working. The first just prints %PATH%
, and the second prints nothing.
echo %PATH%
echo $PATH
This question is related to
powershell
Prefix the variable name with env
:
$env:path
For example, if you want to print the value of environment value "MINISHIFT_USERNAME", then command will be:
$env:MINISHIFT_USERNAME
You can also enumerate all variables via the env
drive:
Get-ChildItem env:
The following is works best in my opinion:
Get-Item Env:PATH
Get-ChildItem
. There's no hierarchy with environment variables.Set-Item -Path env:SomeVariable -Value "Some Value"
)Get-Item Env:
)I found the syntax odd at first, but things started making more sense after I understood the notion of Providers. Essentially PowerShell let's you navigate disparate components of the system in a way that's analogous to a file system.
What's the point of the trailing colon in Env:
? Try listing all of the "drives" available through Providers like this:
PS> Get-PSDrive
I only see a few results... (Alias, C, Cert, D, Env, Function, HKCU, HKLM, Variable, WSMan). It becomes obvious that Env
is simply another "drive" and the colon is a familiar syntax to anyone who's worked in Windows.
You can navigate the drives and pick out specific values:
Get-ChildItem C:\Windows
Get-Item C:
Get-Item Env:
Get-Item HKLM:
Get-ChildItem HKLM:SYSTEM
In addition to Mathias answer.
Although not mentioned in OP, if you also need to see the Powershell specific/related internal variables, you need to use Get-Variable
:
$ Get-Variable
Name Value
---- -----
$ name
? True
^ gci
args {}
ChocolateyTabSettings @{AllCommands=False}
ConfirmPreference High
DebugPreference SilentlyContinue
EnabledExperimentalFeatures {}
Error {System.Management.Automation.ParseException: At line:1 char:1...
ErrorActionPreference Continue
ErrorView NormalView
ExecutionContext System.Management.Automation.EngineIntrinsics
false False
FormatEnumerationLimit 4
...
These also include stuff you may have set in your profile startup script.
Source: Stackoverflow.com