diff --git a/harbour/ChangeLog b/harbour/ChangeLog
index 48972dad12..aed5ffd8e3 100644
--- a/harbour/ChangeLog
+++ b/harbour/ChangeLog
@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@
    2008-12-31 13:59 UTC+0100 Foo Bar (foo.bar foobar.org)
 */
 
+2008-10-18 10:27 UTC+0200 Viktor Szakats (harbour.01 syenar hu)
+  * include/hbapi.h
+  * source/common/hbgete.c
+    + Added hb_getenv_buffer(). Similar to hb_getenv() but 
+      this one needs a buffer+size to be passed, so no memory 
+      allocation is done by the function. It also return 
+      a BOOL to signal success. It doesn't signal if passed 
+      buffer was too small to store the value.
+
 2008-10-18 08:36 UTC+0200 Przemyslaw Czerpak (druzus/at/priv.onet.pl)
   * harbour/source/debug/dbgtwin.prg
   * harbour/source/debug/dbgbrwsr.prg
diff --git a/harbour/include/hbapi.h b/harbour/include/hbapi.h
index 3467cf6ad5..d1f0917137 100644
--- a/harbour/include/hbapi.h
+++ b/harbour/include/hbapi.h
@@ -1010,6 +1010,7 @@ extern HB_EXPORT BOOL   hb_iswince( void ); /* return .T. if OS is Windows CE or
 extern HB_EXPORT BOOL   hb_printerIsReady( char * pszPrinterName );
 
 /* environment variables access */
+extern BOOL   hb_getenv_buffer( const char * szName, char * szBuffer, int nSize );
 /* WARNING: This returned pointer must be freed if not NULL using hb_xfree( ( void * ) ptr ); */
 extern char * hb_getenv( const char * name );
 extern char * hb_netname( void );
diff --git a/harbour/source/common/hbgete.c b/harbour/source/common/hbgete.c
index f5775b01dd..e9df9d7da3 100644
--- a/harbour/source/common/hbgete.c
+++ b/harbour/source/common/hbgete.c
@@ -111,3 +111,52 @@ char * hb_getenv( const char * szName )
 
    return pszBuffer;
 }
+
+
+BOOL hb_getenv_buffer( const char * szName, char * szBuffer, int nSize )
+{
+   BOOL bRetVal = FALSE;
+
+   if( szBuffer != NULL && nSize != 0 )
+   {
+      szBuffer[ 0 ] = '\0';
+
+#if defined(HB_OS_WIN_32)
+
+      {
+         bRetVal = GetEnvironmentVariableA( szName, szBuffer, nSize ) != 0;
+      }
+
+#elif defined(HB_OS_OS2)
+
+      {
+      #ifdef __GNUC__
+         PSZ EnvValue = "";
+      #else
+         PCSZ EnvValue = "";
+      #endif
+      
+         if( DosScanEnv( szName, &EnvValue ) == NO_ERROR )
+         {
+            hb_strncpy( szBuffer, EnvValue, nSize - 1 );
+            bRetVal = TRUE;
+         }
+      }
+
+#else
+
+      {
+         char * pszTemp = getenv( szName );
+      
+         if( pszTemp != NULL )
+         {
+            hb_strncpy( szBuffer, pszTemp, nSize - 1 );
+            bRetVal = TRUE;
+         }
+      }
+
+#endif
+   }
+
+   return bRetVal;
+}