tually a map from string names
to string values.  The string names are called environment
variables.</p>

<p>Some applications rely on environment variables to modify their
behavior according to local settings.  Also, various established
protocols rely on environment variables as a form of interprocess
communication.  For example, most implementations of the common
gateway interface (CGI) use environment variables to pass
Meta-Variables from the server to the script <a href="#0.1_cgi">[1]</a>.
Environment v