---
name: "use"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "usepackage"
version: "1.14-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/use"
---

# use(1)

Frontend to the Usepackage Environment Manager

## NAME

use - Frontend to the *Usepackage* Environment Manager

## SYNOPSIS

- *csh and derivatives:*

   source /usr/share/usepackage/use.csh

- *bourne shell and derivatives:*

   source /usr/share/usepackage/use.bsh

- *korn shell:*

   . /usr/share/usepackage/use.ksh

**use** \[-vs\] \[-f *file*\] *package ...*

**use** -l

## DESCRIPTION

*Usepackage* is an environment management program. It is based on the principle of *packages* - collections of executables that share a common set of necessary environment variables, such as PATH, MANPATH or LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH.

For each given *package*, **use** sources the appropriate environment information into the current shell. The environment information is specified in a configuration file, see *[usepackage(1)](/usepackage/1.md)*.

### OPTIONS

- *-v*

  Output verbose information to the standard error stream.

- *-s*

  Silence warnings for un-matched packages. This is useful in a shell *rc* script when a package is known not to be available on all architectures that  the shell is used on.

- *-f file*

  Specify an alternate initial configuration file.

- *-l*

  List available packages and groups.

## FILES

- **/usr/share/usepackage/usepackage.conf**

  The default configuration file.

- **/usr/share/usepackage/use.csh**

  Shell setup for csh and derivatives.

- **/usr/share/usepackage/use.bsh**

  Shell setup for bourne shell and derivatives.

- **/usr/share/usepackage/use.ksh**

  Shell setup for ksh.

- **/usr/bin/usepackage**

  The underlying *Usepackage* executable.

## ENVIRONMENT

Other than the reading and re-definition of environment variables for package  setup, **use** also uses the following environment variables for user configuration:

- **PACKAGES\_PATH**

  Colon-separated path list giving the directories to search for configuration files. Shell-style tilde (~) user-directory escapes are expanded.

- **HOME**

  If present in the environment, this is used to provide the expansion for the tilde (~) user-directory.

- **SHELL**

  If present in the environment, the last path component of this is used for shell matching (see *SYNTAX*) and detecting the style of environment output that should be used, see *[usepackage(1)](/usepackage/1.md)*.

## COPYRIGHT

```
Usepackage Environment Manager
Copyright (C) 1995-2020  Jonathan Hogg  <me@jonathanhogg.com>
```

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

## SEE ALSO

[usepackage(1)](/usepackage/1.md), [csh(1)](/csh/1.md), [sh(1)](/sh/1.md), [ksh(1)](/ksh/1.md)