If your $_ENV array is mysteriously empty, but you still see the variables when calling getenv() or in your phpinfo(), check your http://us.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.variables-order ini setting to ensure it includes "E" in the string.$_ENV -- $HTTP_ENV_VARS [已弃用] — 环境变量
通过环境方式传递给当前脚本的变量的数组。
这些变量被从 PHP 解析器的运行环境导入到 PHP 的全局命名空间。很多是由支持 PHP 运行的 Shell 提供的，并且不同的系统很可能运行着不同种类的 Shell，所以不可能有一份确定的列表。请查看你的 Shell 文档来获取定义的环境变量列表。
其他环境变量包含了 CGI 变量，而不管 PHP 是以服务器模块还是 CGI 处理器的方式运行。
$HTTP_ENV_VARS 包含相同的信息，但它不是一个超全局变量。 (注意 $HTTP_ENV_VARS 和 $_ENV 是不同的变量，PHP 处理它们的方式不同)
| 版本 | 说明 |
|---|---|
| 4.1.0 | 引入 $_ENV，弃用 $HTTP_ENV_VARS。 |
Example #1 $_ENV 范例
<?php
echo 'My username is ' .$_ENV["USER"] . '!';
?>假设 "bjori" 运行此段脚本
以上例程的输出类似于：
My username is bjori!
Note:
“Superglobal”也称为自动化的全局变量。这就表示其在脚本的所有作用域中都是可用的。不需要在函数或方法中用global $variable; 来访问它。
If your $_ENV array is mysteriously empty, but you still see the variables when calling getenv() or in your phpinfo(), check your http://us.php.net/manual/en/ini.core.php#ini.variables-order ini setting to ensure it includes "E" in the string.Please note that writing to $_ENV does not actually set an environment variable, i.e. the variable will not propagate to any child processes you launch (except forked script processes, in which case it's just a variable in the script's memory). To set real environment variables, you must use putenv().
Basically, setting a variable in $_ENV does not have any meaning besides setting or overriding a script-wide global variable. Thus, one should never modify $_ENV except for testing purposes (and then be careful to use putenv() too, if appropriate).
PHP will not trigger any kind of error or notice when writing to $_ENV.If $_ENV is empty because variables_order does not include it, it will be filled with values fetched by getenv().
For example, when calling getenv("REMOTE_ADDR"), $_ENV['REMOTE_ADDR'] will be defined as well (if such an environment variable exists).Comments for this page seem to indicate getenv() returns environment variables in all cases.
For getenv() to work, php.ini variables_order must contain 'E'.If you wish to define an environment variable in your Apache vhost file, use the directive SetEnv.
SetEnv varname "variable value"
It is important to note that this new variable will appear in $_SERVER, not $_ENV.When running a PHP program under the command line, the $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] variable does not contain the hostname. However, the following works for me under Unix/Linux and Windows:
<?php
if (isset($_ENV["HOSTNAME"]))
$MachineName = $_ENV["HOSTNAME"];
else if (isset($_ENV["COMPUTERNAME"]))
$MachineName = $_ENV["COMPUTERNAME"];
else $MachineName = "";
?>