APPX Environment Variables

Environment Variables are used to modify the behavior of APPX at runtime. They may be set in the Windows or Unix operating system before APPX in invoked, or may be established in a special APPX environment variable file named 'appx.env'.

Information on setting Environment Variables can be found in Setting Environment Variables.

Typically used environment variables are defined and explained in the 'appx.env' distributed with each APPX release. This file is found in the $APPXPATH directory.

Additional detailed information on specific Environment Variables may be found at APPX Environment Variable List.

Environment Variables are used to control the behavior of APPX from the outside. Some uses of APPX Environment Variables are:

• Client/Server Login & connection info. (Specify login/password/host/port/server program name for client/server operations).
• Directories to use. (Customize a production installation's preferences as to locations of files/directories such as: APPXPATH, APPX_PRT_FI_DIR, APPX_0SA_PATH, APPX_PRT_SCRIPT, APPX_BG_SCRIPT.)
• APPX functionality/compatibility options. (Select APPX functionality or compatibility options like APPX_PD_SIGNS.)
• Y2K options. (Select Y2K pivot options, such as APPX_PIVOT_YEAR and APPX_PIVOT_ITEMS.)
• APPX scripting. (Control APPX scripting, such as APPX_SCRIPT_IN, APPX_SCRIPT_OUT, APPX_SCRIPT_STEP, APPX_TST_DIR.)
• Virtual coffee cup. (Function as a virtual coffee cup, ignoring invalid dates, during SPEED II data import, via APPX_PORTABLE_DATE.)
• To activate and specify logging. (These variables often come in pairs, one specifying a file location, another specifying how much to log. Usually, tell APPX to log everything, by assigning the "CODE" or "MASK" variable the value 0xFFFFFFFF.)
• Network traffic. (APPX_NET_LOG, APPX_NET_LOG_MASK, APPX_NETIO_LOG, APPX_NETIO_CODE)
• File access statistics. (APPX_FD_CACHE_LOG, APPX_FD_CACHE_CODE)
• Memory diagnostics. (APPX_TRAILER_COUNT, APPX_CHECK_MEM, )
• License server diagnostics. (APPX_LS_DBG (log file is specified via -l=... parameter, usually "logfile"), APPX_LS_GHOSTS)
• HASP Security . (APPX_SS_LOG, APPX_SS_CODE)
• AppxODBC (to APPX)and RDBMS (to SQL, other data). (APPX_ODBC_LOG, APPX_ODBC_CODE, APPX_SQL_CMD, APPX_DBG_CODE)

When starting up, APPX captures environment variables currently active in the operating system.

In Unix, these can be defined in /etc/profile, the user's ~/.profile, or in a script invoked on the way into APPX. The form these typically take is:

export APPXPATH=/usr/appx/data # ksh or bash shells

APPXPATH=/usr/appx/data # sh or Bourne shell

export APPXPATH

In Windows, the form these typically take is:

set APPXPATH=C:\usr\appx\data

Once the OS environment variables are determined, APPX overlays them with $APPXPATH/appx.env environment variables. After these are evaluated, APPX then overlays them with overrides in the Unix user's home directory. In Windows, APPX looks in C:\.

If you are running APPX Client/Server, environment variables are evaluated both at the Server and at the Client. The following environment variables are evaluated at the APPX/Client:

APPX_SCRIPT_IN

APPX_SCRIPT_OUT

APPX_SCRIPT_STEP

APPX_TST_DIR

All other environment variables are evaluated at the APPX/Server.

When upgrading to newer releases of APPX, you must be careful that any modifications you have made to $APPXPATH/appx.env (as well as start-appxd.sh, appx_print, appx_submit, and your .gdef files) do not get overlaid. Be sure you can restore from backup copies of these files, prior to upgrading APPX.

Comments:

Read what other users have said about this page or add your own comments.