Required Environment Variables

You must set the following environment variables before you access the database server or perform most administrative tasks:

• INFORMIXDIR

  The INFORMIXDIR environment variable specifies the directory where the product files are installed. Set INFORMIXDIR to the directory where you installed your Informix database server.

• PATH

  The PATH environment variable specifies the location of executable files ($INFORMIXDIR/bin).

• ONCONFIG

  The ONCONFIG environment variable specifies the name of the active ONCONFIG configuration file. The next section describes how to prepare the ONCONFIG file. After you prepare the ONCONFIG file, set the ONCONFIG environment variable to the name of the file.

  Users running client applications do not need to set the ONCONFIG environment variable.

  If the ONCONFIG environment variable is not present, the database server uses configuration values from the file $INFORMIXDIR/etc/onconfig.

• INFORMIXSERVER

  The INFORMIXSERVER environment variable specifies the name of the default database server. It can have one of the following values:

  • The same value as specified for the DBSERVERNAME or DBSERVERALIASES configuration parameter in the ONCONFIG file
    Important:
    For database servers that communicate with other database servers, you must define a TCP/IP connection in DBSERVERNAME or DBSERVERALIAS even when both instances reside on the same machine.
  • A specific coserver name, using the following format:

    dbservername.coserver_number 

In the coserver name, dbservername is the value that is assigned to the DBSERVERNAME configuration parameter in the ONCONFIG file, and coserver_number is the value assigned to the COSERVER configuration parameter for the connection coserver.