How to export dot separated environment variables

Question

Execution of

user@EWD-MacBook-Pro:~$ export property.name=property.value

Gives me

-bash: export: `property.name=property.value\         


        

Answer 1

Bash only permits '_' and alpha numeric characters in variable names. The '.' isn't permitted.

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/gotchas.html