Set Env: USER
import os print 'setenv...', print os.environ['USER'] # show current shell variable value os.environ['USER'] = 'Brian' # runs os.putenv behind the scenes os.system('python echoenv.py') os.environ['USER'] = 'Arthur' # changes passed to spawned programs os.system('python echoenv.py') # and linked-in C library modules os.environ['USER'] = raw_input('?') print os.popen('python echoenv.py').read()