Names#

Most environment names are in UPPER_CASE. This is sort of a convention used by most administrators, allowing the name to pop out of a string. For example, echo "Hello, $NAME" is a bit clearer than echo "Hello, $name" for those familiar with environment variables.

Technically, however, the name can be lower_case too. Check it out:

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michael@develop:~$ a="mike"
michael@develop:~$ B="Mike"
michael@develop:~$ echo "Hello, $a"
Hello, mike
michael@develop:~$ echo "Hello, $B"
Hello, Mike

So, you're going to find most environment variables are UPPER_CASE, and I'd recommended sticking to that convention.