MINOR: config: support default values for environment variables

MINOR: config: support default values for environment variables

Sometimes it is really useful to be able to specify a default value for
an optional environment variable, like the ${name-value} construct in
shell. In fact we're really missing this for a number of settings in
reg tests, starting with timeouts.

This commit simply adds support for the common syntax above. Other
common forms like '+' to replace existing variables, or ':-' and ':+'
to act on empty variables, were not implemented at this stage, as they
are less commonly needed.