Ympäristömuuttuja

Ympäristömuuttuja is a Finnish term that translates to "environment variable" in English. In computing, an environment variable is a dynamic-named value that can affect the way running processes will behave on a computer. They are part of the operating system's environment, a sort of temporary storage that holds information about the system's configuration and the user's preferences.

Environment variables are commonly used to store system-wide settings or user-specific configurations. For example, a common environment variable is the "PATH" variable, which tells the operating system where to look for executable programs. When you type a command in the terminal, the operating system searches through the directories listed in the PATH variable to find the corresponding program. Other examples include variables for specifying the user's home directory, temporary file locations, or language settings.

They can be set at different levels: system-wide, for a specific user, or for a particular process or shell session. This allows for flexible customization of the computing environment. For developers, environment variables are crucial for managing settings like API keys, database credentials, or configuration options for applications without hardcoding them directly into the source code. This practice enhances security and makes it easier to deploy applications across different environments, such as development, testing, and production. Accessing and modifying environment variables is typically done through the operating system's command-line interface or graphical settings.