+.
+.\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+.
+.SH "REMOTE ENVIRONMENT"
+.
+The environment for a remote command (executed either through the
+.B rsh
+command, or a build command) is set up as follows:
+.hP \*o
+The complete environment passed to \*(sw is used as a basis.
+.hP \*o
+Any environment variables defined by the remote execution program
+(usually
+.BR rsh )
+override corresponding variables in the basis environment.
+.hP \*o
+The
+.B SW_ARCH
+variable is set to the name of the remote host's architecture.
+.hP \*o
+Variable assignments are read from the global
+.IB prefix /share/sw\-env
+file. This makes some assignments which are useful everywhere, and will
+then usually include the file
+.B .sw\-env
+in the current directory.
+.PP
+The format of the
+.B sw\-env
+files is documented separately in
+.BR sw\-env (5).
+.
+.\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+.
+.SH "LOCAL QUIRKS"
+.
+This section describes how non-vendor software works at EBI. Chances
+are that other sites will work differently. This description is here as
+an example setup for \*(sw.
+.PP
+All the non-vendor software gets put in one big shared filesystem, and
+is exported from our main fileserver. The filesystem is mounted on all
+clients as
+.BR /sw/common .
+Architecture-neutral files are then
+placed in the conventional subdirectories off
+.B /sw/common
+(e.g.,
+.BR /sw/common/share,
+or
+.BR /sw/common/info ).
+Architecture specific files are stored in subdirectories off
+.BR /sw/common/arch .
+For example, Linux binaries go in
+.BR /sw/common/arch/i386-linux/bin ,
+and Solaris libraries in
+.BR /sw/common/arch/sparc-solaris/lib .
+Additionally, each architecture-specific subtree has a symbolic link
+back up to
+.B /sw/common
+for each of the architecture-neutral subdirectories.
+.PP
+There is a symbolic link on every client, from
+.B /sw/arch
+to
+.BI /sw/common/arch/ arch\fR,
+where
+.I arch
+is the architecture of that client. Thus, every client has two
+.I views
+of the software repository: the `common' view where every host sees
+exactly the same mapping between filenames and files, and the `arch'
+view where every host sees the same mapping between filenames and
+programs which do the same job.
+.PP
+And that's just about it.
+.
+.\"--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+.
+.SH "ENVIRONMENT"
+.
+The following environment variables are of interest to \*(sw: