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 — 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。
示例 #1 $_ENV 范例
<?php
echo 'My username is ' .$_ENV["USER"] . '!';
?>假设 "bjori" 运行此段脚本
以上示例的输出类似于：
My username is bjori!
注意:
“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.