A Short History of env vs printenv Raw

gistfile1.txt

Are there any historical reasons for there being two commands instead of one?

There was just history manner.

Bill Joy wrote the first version of printenv command in 1979 for BSD.
UNIX System III introduced env command in 1980.
GNU followed UNIX System's env in 1986.
BSD followed GNU/UNIX System's env in 1988.
MINIX followed BSD's printenv in 1988.
GNU followed MINX/BSD's printenv in 1989.
GNU shell programming utilities 1.0 included printenv and env in 1991.
GNU Shell Utilities merged into GNU coreutils in 2002, which was what's you could easily found in GNU/Linux nowadays.
Note that the "followed" doesn't means the source code was same, probably they were rewritten to avoid license lawsuit.

So the reason of why both commands existed is because when Bill Joy wrote printenv that time, the env doesn't exist yet. After 10 years of merging/compatibility and GNU come across it, you are now seeing both similar commands at the same page.

This history indicated as follows: (I try to minimized the answer and so only provides 2 essential source code here, the rest you can click attached links to see)

[fall of 1975]

Also arriving in the fall of 1975 were two unnoticed graduate students, Bill Joy and Chuck Haley; they both took an immediate interest in the new system. Initially they began working on a Pascal system that Thompson had hacked together while hanging around the 11/70 machine room.

[1977]

Joy started compiling the first Berkeley Software Distribution (1BSD), which was released on March 9, 1978. //rf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution

[February, 1979]

1979(see "Bill Joy, UCB February, 1979") /1980(see "copyright[] =") , printenv.c //rf: http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2.11BSD/src/ucb/printenv.c

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.
 * All rights reserved.  The Berkeley software License Agreement
 * specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
 */

#ifndef lint
char copyright[] =
"@(#) Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California.\n\
 All rights reserved.\n";
#endif not lint

#ifndef lint
static char sccsid[] = "@(#)printenv.c  5.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/85";
#endif not lint

/*
 * printenv
 *
 * Bill Joy, UCB
 * February, 1979
 */

extern  char **environ;

main(argc, argv)
    int argc;
    char *argv[];
{
    register char **ep;
    int found = 0;

    argc--, argv++;
    if (environ)
        for (ep = environ; *ep; ep++)
            if (argc == 0 || prefix(argv[0], *ep)) {
                register char *cp = *ep;

                found++;
                if (argc) {
                    while (*cp && *cp != '=')
                        cp++;
                    if (*cp == '=')
                        cp++;
                }
                printf("%s\n", cp);
            }
    exit (!found);
}

prefix(cp, dp)
    char *cp, *dp;
{

    while (*cp && *dp && *cp == *dp)
        cp++, dp++;
    if (*cp == 0)
        return (*dp == '=');
    return (0);
}
[1979]

Hard to determine released in 2BSD OR 3BSD //rf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution

3BSD The printenv command appeared in 3.0 BSD. //rf: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=printenv&sektion=1#end 3.0 BSD introduced at 1979 //rf: http://gunkies.org/wiki/3_BSD

2BSD The printenv command first appeared in 2BSD //rf: http://man.openbsd.org/printenv.1

[June, 1980]

UNIX Release 3.0 OR "UNIX System III" //rf: ftp://pdp11.org.ru/pub/unix-archive/PDP-11/Distributions/usdl/SysIII/

[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$ sudo grep -rni printenv . //no such printenv exist.
[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$ sudo find . -iname '*env*'
./sys3/usr/src/lib/libF77/getenv_.c
./sys3/usr/src/lib/libc/vax/gen/getenv.c
./sys3/usr/src/lib/libc/pdp11/gen/getenv.c
./sys3/usr/src/man/man3/getenv.3c
./sys3/usr/src/man/docs/c_env
./sys3/usr/src/man/docs/mm_man/s03envir
./sys3/usr/src/man/man7/environ.7
./sys3/usr/src/man/man1/env.1
./sys3/usr/src/cmd/env.c
./sys3/bin/env
[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$ man ./sys3/usr/src/man/man1/env.1 | cat //but got env already
ENV(1)                                                                General Commands Manual                                                                ENV(1)



NAME
       env - set environment for command execution

SYNOPSIS
       env [-] [ name=value ] ...  [ command args ]

DESCRIPTION
       Env obtains the current environment, modifies it according to its arguments, then executes the command with the modified environment.  Arguments of the form
       name=value are merged into the inherited environment before the command is executed.  The - flag causes the inherited environment to be ignored  completely,
       so that the command is executed with exactly the environment specified by the arguments.

       If no command is specified, the resulting environment is printed, one name-value pair per line.

SEE ALSO
       sh(1), exec(2), profile(5), environ(7).



                                                                                                                                                             ENV(1)
[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$ 
[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$ cat ./sys3/usr/src/cmd/env.c //diff with http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=pdp11v/usr/src/cmd/env.c version 1.4, you will know this file is slightly older, so we can concluded that this file is "env.c version < 1.4"
/*
 *      env [ - ] [ name=value ]... [command arg...]
 *      set environment, then execute command (or print environment)
 *      - says start fresh, otherwise merge with inherited environment
 */
#include <stdio.h>

#define NENV    100
char    *newenv[NENV];
char    *nullp = NULL;

extern  char **environ;
extern  errno;
extern  char *sys_errlist[];
char    *nvmatch(), *strchr();

main(argc, argv, envp)
register char **argv, **envp;
{

        argc--;
        argv++;
        if (argc && strcmp(*argv, "-") == 0) {
                envp = &nullp;
                argc--;
                argv++;
        }

        for (; *envp != NULL; envp++)
                if (strchr(*envp, '=') != NULL)
                        addname(*envp);
        while (*argv != NULL && strchr(*argv, '=') != NULL)
                addname(*argv++);

        if (*argv == NULL)
                print();
        else {
                environ = newenv;
                execvp(*argv, argv);
                fprintf(stderr, "%s: %s\n", sys_errlist[errno], *argv);
                exit(1);
        }
}

addname(arg)
register char *arg;
{
        register char **p;

        for (p = newenv; *p != NULL && p < &newenv[NENV-1]; p++)
                if (nvmatch(arg, *p) != NULL) {
                        *p = arg;
                        return;
                }
        if (p >= &newenv[NENV-1]) {
                fprintf(stderr, "too many values in environment\n");
                print();
                exit(1);
        }
        *p = arg;
        return;
}

print()
{
        register char **p = newenv;

        while (*p != NULL)
                printf("%s\n", *p++);
}

/*
 *      s1 is either name, or name=value
 *      s2 is name=value
 *      if names match, return value of s2, else NULL
 */

static char *
nvmatch(s1, s2)
register char *s1, *s2;
{

        while (*s1 == *s2++)
                if (*s1++ == '=')
                        return(s2);
        if (*s1 == '\0' && *(s2-1) == '=')
                return(s2);
        return(NULL);
}
[xiaobai@xiaobai pdp11v3]$
[1985]

BSD first printenv manual //rf: http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2.11BSD/src/man/man1/printenv.1 but i can't found manual related to env, the closest is getenv and environ //http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2.11BSD/src/man

[1986]

First version of GNU env //rf: ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/i386/1.0-RELEASE/ports/shellutils/src/env.c

[1987]

MINIX 1st released //rf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_S._Tanenbaum

Tanenbaum wrote a clone of UNIX, called MINIX (MINi-unIX), for the IBM PC. It was targeted at students and others who wanted to learn how an operating system worked.
[1988]

BSD 1st env.c //http://minnie.tuhs.org/cgi-bin/utree.pl?file=2.11BSD/src/usr.sbin/cron/env.c

/* Copyright 1988,1990,1993,1994 by Paul Vixie
 * All rights reserved
[October 4, 1988]

MINIX version 1.3 //rf: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.os.minix/cQ8kaiq1hgI

... 32932 190 /minix/commands/printenv.c //printenv.c already exist

//rf: http://www.informatica.co.cr/linux/research/1990/0202.htm

[1989]

First version of GNU printenv, refer to [August 12, 1993].

[July 16, 1991]

"Shellutils" - GNU shell programming utilities 1.0 released //rf: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gnu.announce/xpTRtuFpNQc

The programs in this package are:

basename date dirname env expr groups id logname pathchk printenv printf sleep tee tty whoami yes nice nohup stty uname

[August 12, 1993]

printenv.c //rf: ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/i386/1.0-RELEASE/ports/shellutils/src/printenv.c

, GNU Shell Utilities 1.8 //rf: ftp://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/i386/1.0-RELEASE/ports/shellutils/VERSION

/* printenv -- print all or part of environment
   Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation.
...
[1993]

printenv.c which found on DSLinux source code in 2006 //rf: (Google) cache:mailman.dslinux.in-berlin.de/pipermail/dslinux-commit-dslinux.in-berlin.de/2006-August/000578.html

--- NEW FILE: printenv.c ---
/*
 * Copyright (c) 1993 by David I. Bell
[November 1993]

The first version of FreeBSD was released. //rf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD

[september 1, 2002]

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/tree/README-package-renamed-to-coreutils

The GNU fileutils, textutils, and sh-utils(see "Shellutils" at July 16, 1991 above) packages have been merged into one, called the GNU coreutils.

Overall, env use cases compare with printenv:

print environment variables, but printenv can do the same
Disable shell builtin but can achieve with enable cmd too.
set variable but pointless due to some shells already can do it without env, e.g.

$ HOME=/dev HOME=/tmp USER=root /bin/bash -c "cd ~; pwd"

/tmp

#!/usr/bin/env python header, but still not portable if env not in /usr/bin

env -i, disable all env, i don't have useful use case yet.

target_PATH="$PATH:$(sudo printenv PATH)"; is useful to direct use the root path without have to further parsing the output of env or printenv.

e.g:

xb@dnxb:~$ sudo env | grep PATH
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
xb@dnxb:~$ sudo printenv | grep PATH
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
xb@dnxb:~$ sudo printenv PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
xb@dnxb:~$ sudo env PATH
env: ‘PATH’: No such file or directory
xb@dnxb:~$