Okay, I can display an environmental variable from the commandline:

`echo $COLUMNS`

And get a response.

But I can't execute that from within a shell script, I get nothing. So, there must be a way to import that environment variable - but I've not been able to find a simple solution/explanation.

Once upon a time I recall seeing something like `$ENV_COLUMNS`, but that's not correct (or is missing something).

I'm trying for something like this:

```
    for x in $COLUMNS
     do echo -n "-"
    done
    echo #to get the /n

```