Code: using System; public class Foo { static void Main(string []args) { Console.WriteLine("{0}={1}", args[0], System.Environment.ExpandEnvironmentVariables(args[0]) ); } } Sanity check: martinf@monodev03:~/prj/cs/oratest> echo $DISPLAY :0.0 Test Run: martinf@monodev03:~/prj/cs/oratest> mono envshow.exe DISPLAY DISPLAY=DISPLAY