Environment Variables List

Specifies the hostname:port to which your client will connect, to retrieve APPX data. It should be set to your APPX server's machine name, followed by a colon ":" character, followed by a port number, such as 8060. The hostname and port specified must correspond to a running WinAppxD or appxd (you can test this by trying to login to the desired hostname and port with "appx -c" or the Java client). Almost always required when using AppxODBC on a PC, to access UNIX data.

Valid values: hostname:port
Default value: not set

Causes APPX to revert to pre-3.2 file opening behavior, if set to 1. In APPX 3.2, a performance optimization was made, to cause APPX to only open a file if it believes there is a chance of I/O actually being performed with that file. Prior to release 3.2, APPX would open any file, which was referred to by a process.

For example, in APPX 3.1, the statement:

SET TAR CUSTOMER BALANCE = 0

Would cause APPX to open the CUSTOMER file even though no IO would take place.

Also, referring to a file in a child constraint would cause APPX to open the file when the parent is executed.

Now, in 3.2, we only open a file if we detect one or more of the following reference types:

• The file is the PCF for the process
• READ, READNEXT, BEG/END READ statement
• WRITE< REWRITE, DELETE statement
• SCAN statement
• The file is the target of a data lookup

If you are experiencing problems with a process under 3.2 or later, and you know that process ran fine on a version of APPX prior to 3.2; try setting APPX_ACCESS_ALL_FILES=1 and see if the problem goes away.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Causes APPX to revert to version 1.8.4 (and earlier) numeric mask interpretation, if set to 1. Otherwise, APPX uses the new default numeric mask interpretation in APPX 2.0 and later. (Hopefully no one still needs this, but it's here for completeness.)

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Causes APPX to revert to version 2.0 (and earlier) alignment for numeric fields, if set to 1. Otherwise, APPX uses the new default numeric alignment in APPX 2.2 and later. (Hopefully no one still needs this, but it's here for completeness.)

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Causes APPX to revert to pre-2.0 IPC semantics for Related processes, if set to 1. (Hopefully no one still needs this, but it's here for completeness.)

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Causes APPX to revert to pre-3.3 semantics when assigning a negative number to a signed binary. For some reason, assigning a negative number to a signed binary would cause an overflow in releases prior to 3.3. In case for some unknown reason you really do want the overflow to occur, you can turn the old behavior back on, by setting APPX_NO_NEG_INT to 1.

Valid values: 1
Default value: {appx engine location}/data

If set to '0' (the digit zero, without quotes), I/O verification is turned off. If the environment variable is not defined at all, I/O verification is turned on for Windows, and off for UNIX. You might want to turn this off if you are confident of your Windows network file access, or if you are using Presentation Server on Windows, because there is a performance penalty associated with I/O verification, which will show up under heavy user load as an increase in I/O counts and CPU utilization. (Why use it at all? Because Microsoft Windows network file sharing code has some bugs that have been known to corrupt data in APPX and other database file environments.)

Valid values: 0
Default value: not set

This variable probably should not be used. It disables fixes to packed decimal multiplication that were made to APPX version 3.0.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

If set to 1, disables the ability of end users to create Dynamic Keys to data files. Dynamic Keys were a new feature added in a recent 3.x release of APPX, and sometimes sites have huge files that would require lots of processing and disk space to create a dynamic key. For this reason, a site might choose to not implement this feature on their production system, or might choose to restrict certain users from using it, by setting this environment variable.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

File name into which to log Dynamic Key generation debug information. If you've generated a Dynamic Key, and you get no records in the resulting key, or experience some other problem, set this variable to collect more information as to what is happening during dynamic key generation. If this variable is not set, no debug information is collected.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a writable log file on your system
Default value: not set

This variable instructs APPX to use an alternate SCAN process. It is made obsolete by the use of 0SA 'Hook' records in APPX 4.0 and higher).

Valid values: Name of alternate SCAN process
Default value: (in 4.0 and later, new SCAN process)

Set this to ignore the "Bad portable date" error, which sometimes appears very often (hundreds of times or more) when importing SPEED II files which contain dates. The reason it occurs is that SPEED II would allow you to store invalid dates in a date field via ILF code, whereas APPX will reject any invalid date during import.

Valid values: true
Default value: not set

This variable must be set to a valid filename of an appx engine. For example, if you had installed APPX in /usr/appx, you would set APPX_SERVER=/usr/appx/appx. On UNIX systems, in most cases, you would set this variable in the start-appxd.sh shell script On Windows systems, you would set it in the System environment variables dialog box. This variable must be set before appxd or WinAppxD is started. Changes made to it when appxd and WinAppxD are already running will not be used until the appxd or WinAppxD is killed and restarted.

Valid values: Valid path to an appx engine
Default value: not set

This disables the use of the TCP "NODELAY" option. The NODELAY option sends out characters without the buffering of multiple characters into a single packet that normally takes place. Disabling NODELAY may improve your APPX Presentation Client or AppxNET performance. (It also may not. Results are dependent on your network configuration and exactly what you're doing across the network.)

Valid values: true
Default value: not set

Allows you to hard code a list of supported client/server features, in case for some reason you want to override the client or server's default list. For example, if both your client and server support the new Data Palette feature, but you don't want to make this feature available, you could disable it by eliminating the bit representing that feature, from the feature mask on the client or server. This variable should be used only as directed by APPX Technical Support.

Valid values: hex numbers between 0x00000000 and 0xFFFFFFFF
Default value: APPX-version-dependent

Specifies the interval in minutes between "is the other system alive?" pings, in an attempt to detect dead connections. The default is 10. If you set it to a number below 5, it will be reset to 5, so that the network is not filled with constant "are you there?" queries.

Valid values: Integers
Default value: 10

APPX_SCRIPT_OUT will record all enduser keystrokes (and selected Processes executed in the program flow) into an output file. This file is quite readable, and is editable for the use of APPX_SCRIPT_IN (described below). It is initialized upon entering APPX. It is not populated until APPX is successfully exited.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a script recording file on your system
Default value: not set

APPX_SCRIPT_IN will "play back" all keystrokes recorded in it, into the invocation of the APPX engine, as if the enduser had manually pressed these keys. It will also substitute any #$word sequences it finds, in the APPX_SCRIPT_IN file, with the current value of the environment variable "word". For example, #$USER would substitute in "michael" if the environment variable USER was set to "michael".

Valid values: Appropriate path to an existing script on your system
Default value: not set

APPX_SCRIPT_STEP if set will cause APPX to pause before each APPX OPTION key is sent from the script. While paused, you can press certain keys to do special processing. Here is a list of the actions and keys that work while you are paused.

• c = continue running remainder of script without stepping.
• p = pause and you take over the keyboard until you press ^r
• e = terminate script playback and take control of the session.

Any other key will step forward in the script until the next APPX OPTION key is encountered in the script and then it will pause again.

Valid values: true
Default value: not set

APPX_TST_DIR points to a directory to capture screen images. If this is set, APPX will record every screen image it comes to into this location. If you are running with APPX_SCRIPT_OUT set, then it will store the images in a subdirectory of "expect" and if you are running with APPX_SCRIPT_IN set, then they will be stored in a subdirectory of "actual". The screens themselves will be saved with a file name starting with "screen000" and incrementing the last three digits.

Valid values: Writable directory on your system, which contains writable subdirectories named "expect" and "actual"
Default value: not set

Specifies behavior of APPX when running with APPX_SCRIPT_IN set, performing regression testing. When set to "ALL", causes APPX to exit when a recorded screen differs from an actual screen generated during regression test playback. When set to "STATUS", causes APPX to exit when a recorded screen's status area differs from the status area of an actual screen generated during regression test playback.

Valid values: "ALL" or "STATUS"
Default value: not set.

If you want masked date items to pivot, set this to the year around which you wish to pivot. Available as of 3.5.2. Applies to date-masks only. See the Y2K Implementation Guide for further information.

Valid values: 1 to 99
Default value: not set

To pivot 2-digit years to 19__ or 20__ as appropriate, set this variable to the cutoff year. Applies to both ILF statements, and date-masks. See the Y2K Implementation Guide for further information.

Valid values: 00 to 99
Default value: not set

APPX_PD_SIGNS will tell APPX what byte pattern to use for the sign bits of packed decimal numbers. The first hex digit signifies the bit pattern for positive numbers, and the second the bit pattern for negative numbers. The default is "CD" which is how APPX is normally distributed. Vision uses a default of "FD" which can be overridden when the vision programs are compiled. This setting also effects the APPX EMs which store some packed decimal information. This setting also effects files stored as native APPX files. So, to use this setting of "FD", you must install a special set of APPX internal EMs, and if you have and existing data in "CD" format, you must export the data, set the APPX_PD_SIGNS=FD, then import. Note that if you are accessing Vision/CISAM files over the network via AppxODBC or AppxNET, this variable must be set on both the client and the server system.

Valid values: "CD", "FD"
Default value: "CD".

"Hint" to Oracle that you want it to optimize its query processing so that the first few rows of a query are returned quickly. The alternative is to optimize the QUERYs so that all rows are returned as quickly as possible. Since APPX generally displays a screenful of records and then stops, awaiting user interaction, rather than retrieving all records immediately, setting this variable can improve performance.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

This variable has been superseded by FMS control strings, but still exists in the system. Since it is more flexible to use FMS control strings, that is a better option. However, since some users may still have this variable set, it is worth documenting.

APPX_ORACLE_CONNECT specifies what user ID and password to use to login, to Oracle. You can also specify which database to connect to. The format of the string depends on the version of the server, the network library being used, the OS and some other factors. You have to know how to login to Oracle from the command line before you can tell APPX how to do it.

Valid values: installation-dependent connect string
Default value: not set

This is used to specify the ORACLE library location, for dynamic linking. Normally, you would just use the ORACLE or ORAHOME environment variables, one of which is probably already set on your system (probably pointing to the home directory for the user 'oracle'), but in some cases, you might want APPX to dynamically link against a set of libraries which is not in ORACLE or ORAHOME (if testing a new version, for example). In that case, set APPX_ORACLE_LIB to that alternate location, and it will override the setting of ORACLE.

Valid values: Appropriate path to ORACLE library
Default value: not set

This is used to specify the names of the ORACLE libraries which APPX references when dynamically linking in ORACLE functionality. The default list should be sufficient, but might need to be altered for different versions of Oracle, or the same version on different OS platforms. A symptom of perhaps needing to change the list of libraries would be APPX complaining about a symbol not found, after you have installed a new version of ORACLE.

Valid values: list of Oracle libraries containing functions used by the APPX ORACLE interface
Default value: "libnet.so,libclntsh.so"

Specifies that parameterized INSERTs should be used when inserting data into Oracle tables.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Default SYBASE server name. Probably made obsolete by FMS group settings. If set, this variable overrides the value of DSQUERY (which also holds the name of the default SYBASE server).

Valid values: Valid SYBASE server, such as 'sybase'
Default value: not set

Default SYBASE database name. Probably made obsolete by FMS group settings. This is the SYBASE repository into which we write metafiles describing file structures. IE, the SYBASE data dictionary.

Valid values: Valid, existing SYBASE database name, such as 'master'
Default value: not set

This is used to specify the SYBASE library location, for dynamic linking. Normally, you would just use the SYBASE environment variable which is probably already set on your system (pointing to the home directory for the user 'sybase'), but in some cases, you might want APPX to dynamically link against a set of libraries which is not in SYBASE (if testing a new version, for example). In that case, set APPX_SYBASE_LIB to that alternate location, and it will override the setting of SYBASE.

Valid values: Appropriate path to SYBASE library
Default value: not set

Packet size for SYBASE database server communications. Setting this to 4096 may improve efficiency of communications.

Valid values: Integers
Default value: not set

Enable Level0 table locking in SYBASE. This is probably still a development feature and should not be enabled unless requested by APPX Software.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Filename into which AppxNET debugging information should be logged. If you are experiencing problems with AppxNET, setting this variable and its companion debug level variable, APPX_NETIO_CODE, will log debugging information to a file. (It may also be helpful to set APPX_NETIO_SERVER, APPX_NET_LOG and APPX_NET_LOG_MASK).

Valid values: Appropriate path to a log file on your system
Default value: not set

Filename into which AppxNET server side debugging information should be logged. If you are experiencing problems with AppxNET, setting this variable will log debugging information related to the server side of an AppxNET client/server connection, to a file.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a log file on your system
Default value: {appx engine location}/data

Debug level for APPX_NETIO_LOG. If you set APPX_NETIO_LOG, you will almost always want this set to 0xFFFFFFFF.

Valid values: hex numbers between 0x00000000 and 0xFFFFFFFF
Default value: 0x00000000

Enable APPX client/server network packet headers for debugging.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Filename to which CGI data parsing debug information should be logged. If you are using APPX through the CGI interface, and want to see exactly what variables are being received by the APPX process during the CGI data import, set this variable to point to a log file, and the CGI data parsing routine will record the variables and values it finds on its input stream.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a log file on your system
Default value: not set

Specifies the debug level when debugging license server issues. If you are having license server trouble, set this to 0xFFFFFFFF. Debug information for the "appx -l=" license server process will appear in the file named after the "-l=", and debug information for clients attempting to obtain session licenses will appear in $APPX_LS_LOG, if it is set. In order for this variable setting to affect the license server, you must kill and restart it. Setting this variable after the license server is running, will not cause it to log debug info. Warning: watch the size of your log file when you have APPX_LS_DBG set, because license server logging tends to be verbose, and you can fill up your disk more quickly than you think.

Valid values: hex numbers between 0x00000000 and 0xFFFFFFFF
Default value: 0x00000000

This variable denotes where to log license server client debug information. In older releases of APPX (early 3.x) it was used to specify server log file location as well. However, all license server logging is now done in the logfile mentioned after "-l=" on the license server command line (typically "logfile").

Valid values: Appropriate path to a writable log file
Default value: none

This variable will cause newer releases of APPX to revert to the old license server behavior of clearing out "ghost" sessions from the USAGE file. "Ghost" sessions are ones still listed in the USAGE file, whose actual APPX processes no longer exist. Aggressively pursuing the removal of these on busy systems results in excessive contention for USAGE locks, so by default, this is now disabled. If a site doesn't have any problems with USAGE locks, and would like to re-enable the ghost-reaping algorithm so that their display of license users more closely matches reality, they should set this to 1.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Number of seconds to wait, after starting license server, before the APPX session validates its license information. You've probably seen the situation where the first time you start APPX after a reboot, it complains about no license server detected, then if you run APPX again, it works fine. Setting this variable to a larger number, like 10 seconds, should avoid that initial "no license server detected" message, at a cost of it taking longer for that

Valid values: Integers
Default value: 5 (UNIX) or 8 (Windows), either of which is usually too small

Overrides the amount of memory APPX will use for an in-memory query. Above this value, APPX will switch to a disk-based sort, which is less efficient. You might want to up this value if queries that ran OK with a small number of records start having trouble when the number of records increases. This may be obsolete in 4.1.

Valid values: max number of bytes to use for an in-memory query sort
Default value: 256000 on UNIX, 64K on Windows (which APPX thinks is very low, perhaps too low)

Tells APPX to append additional trailer bytes to each memory allocation. These bytes are filled with known values which are later checked for corruption when the memory is given back to the system. They can be used to find out if APPX is writing beyond the end of an allocated chunk of memory or memory is getting stepped on for some other reason. If you set APPX_TRAILER_COUNT and memory corruption is detected, you will receive an "mm.c.876 mm_free() - corrupted" cassert message as soon as the corruption is detected.

It's useful to set this variable to 40 if you are getting some other kind of mm.c cassert, because it may catch the source of a memory error BEFORE the other mm.c cassert is triggered, and provide better debugging hints.

Also, .stk dumps (on casserts other than the MARK() error) may provide more info as to what may be going on, if this variable is set.

Valid values: integers
Default value: 0

If you are experiencing problems getting "appx -c" or the Java client to connect to your appxd or WinAppxD, set this variable and APPX_NET_LOG_MASK on both your server and client systems, to generate debug logs. It's most useful to do this on the server, since most of the time, Presentation Client/Server startup issues are in the area of user authentication or security, particularly on NT... but it won't hurt anything to do it on the client, too.

In particular, on NT, look for a line of the form: "LogonUser() failed with {number}". If you see this line, please let APPX Technical Support know which error number you are receiving.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a log file on your system
Default value: not set

Debug level for APPX_NET_LOG. If you set APPX_NET_LOG, you will almost always want to set this to 0xFFFFFFFF.

Valid values: hex numbers between 0x00000000 and 0xFFFFFFFF
Default value: 0x00000000

If you are experiencing problems while doing a restructure, setting this variable to 1 will insert TRAP statements in Restructure event points, for debugging purposes.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

Forces a restructure to occur when requested, even if APPX thinks that a restructure is not required for a particular file. Do not set this variable unless instructed to do so by APPX Software. (If you set it, you will no longer get the "Restructure not required" message. Any file you request to be restructured, will be. This will potentially waste lots of time, recreating files that are already in sync with their DD definition.)

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

If you are experiencing problems with language translation, this variable will direct translation debug logging information to the specified file.

Valid values: Appropriate path to a log file on your system
Default value: not set

Activates Vision debug logging, into the fixed filename "v.log".

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

On some systems, the stack dump logic can get a bit too eager and take up lots of CPU time. This will disable stack dumps on Windows systems (probably only in 4.1 and later). Do not set this variable unless instructed to do so by APPX Technical Support, as stack dumps (the appx.stk file) are normally quite useful in diagnosing APPX software issues.

Valid values: 1
Default value: not set

If using APPX in the shared network disk configuration, with PC clients whose APPXPATH is set to a server's disk drive, you may need to set this variable to '1' (the digit 1, without quotes) to avoid a "panic - memory allocation error". When APPX pre-loads an Em, it first looks to see how big the Em is. Due to a bug in Microsoft Windows, when trying to do this across a network using Windows network file sharing, sometimes it returns an incorrect number. Since that number tends to be really large, APPX tries to allocate (for example) 3 or 4 gig of memory for that Em, causing the memory allocation error. Setting this variable to 1 will avoid pre-loading Em's, and thus avoid encountering this error.

Valid values: Integer (usually 1)
Default value: 0xFFFFFFFF (preload Em's of any size)