If gpg-agent is executed, it outputs data that can be processed by a shell directly, e.g.:SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/ssh-apeOFqMF3292/agent.3292; export SSH_AUTH_SOCK;SSH_AGENT_PID=3293; export SSH_AGENT_PID;echo Agent pid 3293;Why is gpg-agent doing this? I've seen more programs doing it. Did shells in the past not support export var=val? Which shells do not support this alternative shell built-in?I'm working with bash in Kubuntu.
Why first set a variable and then export it instead of setting and exporting in one command?
shell;environment variables
The traditional Bourne shell didn't support combining them (although the System V one let you omit the ;; the 4.2BSD / SunOS shell didn't).  It was added by the Korn shell (crossing the Bourne shell's export with csh's setenv) and subsequently adopted by other shells and by POSIX.2.  Many commercial Unixes still ship the System V variant of the Bourne shell as /bin/sh, so retaining compatibility is a good idea for portability.