Set global variable

[Lyttek]

If I wanted to set a global environment variable and make it permanent and available at bootup, that would be by setting it in a script placed in /etc/profile.d , is that correct?

[chirpy]

Yes. Make sure it's chmod +x with the shebang line (e.g. #!/bin/sh) and then export your variable in it.

[Lyttek]

Given the success of the GZIP=--rsyncable setting as applied to backups, is there any reason NOT to set that as a permanent, global variable? Will that force gzip to always use --rsyncable, system wide? Is there anyway to negate that locally, say by setting GZIP=null during script execution?

[Lyttek]

da 'bump' n grind...

[perlchild]

Given the success of the GZIP=--rsyncable setting as applied to backups, is there any reason NOT to set that as a permanent, global variable? Will that force gzip to always use --rsyncable, system wide? Is there anyway to negate that locally, say by setting GZIP=null during script execution?

you should do
unset GZIP
to remove a value, not set it to a particular one