.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Matthew Dillon <dillon@backplane.com>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
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.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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.\" $DragonFly: src/bin/varsym/varsym.1,v 1.10 2008/02/22 05:19:25 swildner Exp $
.\"
.Dd September 27, 2009
.Dt VARSYM 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm varsym
.Nd get and set user and system-wide variables for variant symlinks
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl adpqsux
.Oo
.Ar var Ns Op Ns Cm = Ns Ar data
.Ar ...
.Oc
.Nm
.Fl x
.Oo
.Ar var Ns Op Ns Cm = Ns Ar data
.Ar ...
.Oc
.Ar command
.Ar args
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
program manages user and system-wide variables.
These variables are typically
used by the system to resolve variant symlinks but may also be used generally.
.Pp
For each operand set, modify, retrieve, or delete the specified variable.
By default variables specified without data are retrieved and variables
specified with data are set.
Variables may be set to empty.
.Bl -tag -width Ar
.It Fl a
List all variables at the specified level.
Note that per-process variables
override per-user variables and per-user variables override system-wide
variables.
By default, per-user variables are listed.
.It Fl d
Delete mode.
The specified variables are deleted.
Any specified data is ignored.
.It Fl p
This option causes variables to be set on a per-process basis and restricts
retrievals to process-specific variables.
Note that since
.Nm
is run as its own process, using this option to set a variable will not
affect your shell's namespace.
Instead you might want to use the
.Fl x
option to set local varsyms and exec a command.
.It Fl q
Quiet mode.
When retrieving a variable only its data is printed.
.It Fl s
This option causes variables to be set system-wide and restricts retrievals
to system-specific variables.
.It Fl u
This option causes variables to be set on a per-user-id basis and restricts
retrievals to user-specific variables.
This is the default unless
.Fl x
is used.
.It Fl x
This option causes variables to be set only within the
.Nm
process and its children, and also allows you to specify a command and
arguments to exec after the var=data specifications.
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
The
.Nm
utility exits with one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It 0
No errors occurred.
.It 1
A requested variable could not be found
.It 2
A requested variable could not be set
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ln 1 ,
.Xr varsym 2 ,
.Xr varsym.conf 5