Using Windows or Linux comes with its own knowledge. Sometimes is really difficult to switch working to the other OS. That's why I've made my walk-through to ease this transition. If you find something wrong or incomplete please comment below and I'll fix it.

The table below and the previous one: Windows cmd vs Linux shell commands are part of my Lab Diary, which I intend to post on pages on these blog and site. It contains more than 5000 articles, code snippets, best practices and my experience in IT world.

Windows - Linux equivalent variables table

Variable/Command

Windows

Example

Linux

Example2

Explanation

TEMP

%TEMP%

C:\WINDOWS\Temp

$TMPDIR
$TMP
$TEMP

/tmp
/var/tmp

What directory is used as tempory folder for program data.

PATH

%PATH%

C:\Windows\

$PATH

All directories that the system will check when looking for commands.

User home

%USERPROFILE%

C:\Users\user

$HOME

/home/user

The current user's home directory.

USER

%USERNAME%

$USER

user

The current logged in user.

User id

wmic useraccount get name,sid

S-1-5-21…

$UID

1

The UID of  user.

Current folder

CD

C:\Users\user

$PWD

/home/user

The current working folder.

Application data

%APPDATA%

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming

/home/user/.<application>/profiles/

Application data folder

Domain

%USERDOMAIN%

domain

HOSTNAME

domain

The hostname of the computer.

Operating System

%OS%

Windows_NT

uname -a

Linux localhost 3.11.

The OS version

Languages get environmental variables table

Language

What

Code

result

python

Get variable

import os
print os.environ['HOME']

C:\Users\user' - windows
'/home/user' - linux

python

Get all

import os
print os.environ

{'TMP': 'C:\\Users\..'

python

Get all formatted

import os
for var in os.environ:
    print('Var: ', var, 'Value: ', os.getenv(var))

('Var: ', 'OS', 'Value: ', 'Windows_NT')
('Var: ', 'PUBLIC', 'Value: ', 'C:\\Users\\Public')

python

Set variable

import os
os.environ['VAR'] = str(value)
os.environ['VAR'] = value

java

Get variable

System.getenv("HOME");

C:\Users\user - windows
/home/user - linux

java

Get all

System.getenv();

 {TEMP="C:\Users..}

java

Get all formatted

Map<String, String> var = System.getenv();
for (String varName : var.keySet()) {
    System.out.format("%s=%s%n", varName, var.get(varName));
}

node.js

Get variable

process.env.HOME;

node.js

Set variable

process.env.VAR = "value";

C#

Get variable

System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable ("HOME")

C#

Set variable

System.Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("VAR", "val")

C

Get variable

value = getenv ("HOME");

C

Set variable

setenv ("VAR", "value", 0);

Python get set env variables

import os
print os.environ['HOME']
print os.environ
for var in os.environ:
    print('Var: ', var, 'Value: ', os.getenv(var))
os.environ['VAR'] = str(value)
os.environ['VAR'] = value

Java get set env variables

System.getenv("HOME");
System.getenv();
Map<String, String> var = System.getenv();
for (String varName : var.keySet()) {
    System.out.format(""%s=%s%n"", varName, var.get(varName));
}

Node.JS get set env variables

process.env.HOME;
process.env.VAR = "value";

C# get set env variables

System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable ("HOME")
System.Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("VAR", "val")

C get set env variables

value = getenv ("HOME");
setenv ("VAR", "value", 0);