How can I escape the scope of an environment?

Question

Is there any way to escape the scope of an environment, e.g. to get the \pgfplotsset command in the MWE below have an effect on the subsequent plot?

(I know that \newcommand doesn't have this problem but that isn't the question.)

Thanks!

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\newenvironment{foo}{}{\pgfplotsset{axis x line=bottom};} % how can I make this pgfplotsset count?

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{foo}
\end{foo}

\begin{axis}
\addplot[domain=-3e-3:3e-3,samples=201]{exp(-x^2 / (2e-3^2)) / (1e-3 * sqrt(2*pi))};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 1

One possibility is to use \aftergroup, as suggested by Christian in his comment.

Note that this approach only allows you to "escape" the scope of the foo environment, i.e. one level up; if the foo environment is not at the global scope, the pgfplots settings will not be applied globally.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\newenvironment{foo}{}{}
\newcommand\fixedpgfplotsset{\pgfplotsset{axis x line=bottom}}
\let\oldendfoo\endfoo
\def\endfoo{\oldendfoo\aftergroup\fixedpgfplotsset}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

%\bgroup %(as an experiment, uncomment this group)
\begin{foo}
\end{foo}
%\egroup    

\begin{axis}
\addplot[domain=-3e-3:3e-3,samples=201]{exp(-x^2 / (2e-3^2)) / (1e-3 * sqrt(2*pi))};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}