Re: (inconsistent?) behavior of environment variables

Tim Chase wrote:

> Tripped over the following on Linux & BSD:
>
> bash$ echo $USER
> tim
> bash$ echo $UID
> 1000
> bash$ vim
> :echo $USER
> tim
> :echo $UID
> :echo expand('$UID')
> 1000
>
> Note that the ":echo $UID" didn't actually return anything. Yet
> running it through expand() produced the expected result. I
> confirmed the behavior to make sure that it wasn't some redraw issue,
> using the expression register in insert-mode, inserting =$UID and
> =expand('$UID') and got the same mismatched behavior.
>
> Based on the description of "expr9" at ":help expression-syntax",
> "$VAR" should contain that environment variable's content.
>
> Is there something I'm missing here or reasoning for the difference?
> Or documentation that I missed?

I believe $UID is a shell variable (bash only?) which is not exported.
Thus Vim doesn't get it. When using expand() the shell is used to
expand the variable, thus then you do get it.

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