Environment variables are variables that contain values necessary to set up a shell environment. Environment variables persist in the shell’s child processes.
To set an environment variable in BASH, use the following command:
export VARIABLE=VALUE
Note: There is an equals sign between the variable name and the value.
If a variable has more than one value, separate them with a colon:
export VARIABLE_NAME=VALUE_1:VALUE_2
Variables that contain spaces are written under quotation marks:
export VARIABLE="VALUE 1"