Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!wucs1!news
From: flan@ai.wustl.edu (Ian "No Excuse" Flanigan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: How Does One Change Variables That Are Set From A Sub-Shell
Summary: Ack!  I wanna set my prompt from a program, but . . . .
Keywords: csh, programs, lunch, variables, set
Message-ID: <1989Nov20.190903.27550@wucs1.wustl.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 89 19:09:03 GMT
Sender: news@wucs1.wustl.edu (USENET News System)
Reply-To: flan@ai.wustl.edu (Ian "No Excuse" Flanigan)
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO
Lines: 22

There has been lots of talk here about how to flop environment variables
back and forth between scripts and so forth.  I have a new question along
the same lines:

	How does one pass a csh variable back to the old csh -or- grab said
	variable from a currently running shell and then feed it back.

I want to do this because I have a program that notifies me when I get
mail.  (I turn biff n, since it tends to destory the screen while this
other program writes nicely in the corner, leaving everything in tact.)  I
wouls also like this program to change my prompt from "flan@ai>" to
"(Mail)flan@ai>".  (Shades of rn, I know.)  I have not been able to find
any help or hints in TFM, and environment variables won't solve the
problem.  Any help, tips, or pointers from netland?

Thanks in advance.


Ian Flanigan

flan@ai.wustl.edu              "You can never have too many napkins."
wucs1.wustl.edu!ai!flan@uucp