GNU Emacs Manual - General Variables

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### General Variables

`AUTHORCOPY`
  The name of a file used to archive news articles posted with the GNUS package.
`CDPATH`
  Used by the `cd` command to search for the directory you specify, when you specify a relative directory name.
`DOMAINNAME`
  The name of the Internet domain that the machine running Emacs is located in. Used by the GNUS package.
`EMACS_UNIBYTE`
  Defining this environment variable directs Emacs to do almost everything with single-byte buffers and strings. It is equivalent to using the ``--unibyte'` command-line option on each invocation. See section Initial Options.
`EMACSDATA`
  Used to initialize the variable `data-directory` used to locate the architecture-independent files that come with Emacs. Setting this variable overrides the setting in ``paths.h'` when Emacs was built.
`EMACSLOADPATH`
  A colon-separated list of directories from which to load Emacs Lisp files. Setting this variable overrides the setting in ``paths.h'` when Emacs was built.
`EMACSLOCKDIR`
  The directory that Emacs places lock files--files used to protect users from editing the same files simultaneously. Setting this variable overrides the setting in ``paths.h'` when Emacs was built.
`EMACSPATH`
  The location of Emacs-specific binaries. Setting this variable overrides the setting in ``paths.h'` when Emacs was built.
`ESHELL`
  Used for shell-mode to override the `SHELL` environment variable.
`HISTFILE`
  The name of the file that shell commands are saved in between logins. This variable defaults to ``~/.history'` if you use (t)csh as shell, to ``~/.bash_history'` if you use bash, to ``~/.sh_history'` if you use ksh, and to ``~/.history'` otherwise.
`HOME`
  The location of the user's files in the directory tree; used for expansion of file names starting with a tilde (``~'`). On MS-DOS, it defaults to the directory from which Emacs was started, with ``/bin'` removed from the end if it was present.
`HOSTNAME`
  The name of the machine that Emacs is running on.
`INCPATH`
  A colon-separated list of directories. Used by the `complete` package to search for files.
`INFOPATH`
  A colon-separated list of directories holding info files. Setting this variable overrides the setting in ``paths.el'` when Emacs was built.
`LANG`
`LC_ALL`
`LC_CTYPE`
  The user's preferred locale. A locale name which contains ``8859-n'`, ``8859_n'` or ``8859n'`, where n is between 1 and 4, automatically specifies the ``Latin-n'` language environment when Emacs starts up. If n is 9, that specifies ``Latin-5'`.
`LOGNAME`
  The user's login name. See also `USER`.
`MAIL`
  The name of the user's system mail inbox.
`MAILRC`
  Name of file containing mail aliases. This defaults to ``~/.mailrc'`.
`MH`
  Name of setup file for the mh system. This defaults to ``~/.mh_profile'`.
`NAME`
  The real-world name of the user.
`NNTPSERVER`
  The name of the news server. Used by the mh and GNUS packages.
`ORGANIZATION`
  The name of the organization to which you belong. Used for setting the `Organization:' header in your posts from the GNUS package.
`PATH`
  A colon-separated list of directories in which executables reside. (On MS-DOS, it is semicolon-separated instead.) This variable is used to set the Emacs Lisp variable `exec-path` which you should consider to use instead.
`PWD`
  If set, this should be the default directory when Emacs was started.
`REPLYTO`
  If set, this specifies an initial value for the variable `mail-default-reply-to`. See section Mail Header Fields.
`SAVEDIR`
  The name of a directory in which news articles are saved by default. Used by the GNUS package.
`SHELL`
  The name of an interpreter used to parse and execute programs run from inside Emacs.
`TERM`
  The name of the terminal that Emacs is running on. The variable must be set unless Emacs is run in batch mode. On MS-DOS, it defaults to ``internal'`, which specifies a built-in terminal emulation that handles the machine's own display.
`TERMCAP`
  The name of the termcap library file describing how to program the terminal specified by the `TERM` variable. This defaults to ``/etc/termcap'`.
`TMPDIR`
  Used by the Emerge package as a prefix for temporary files.
`TZ`
  This specifies the current time zone and possibly also daylight savings information. On MS-DOS, the default is based on country code; see the file ``msdos.c'` for details.
`USER`
  The user's login name. See also `LOGNAME`. On MS-DOS, this defaults to ``root'`.
`VERSION_CONTROL`
  Used to initialize the `version-control` variable (see section Single or Numbered Backups).

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