Informix Error -1003: Invalid ACCEPTKEY set in the environment.

Reasons / Common Causes

-1003 fires when the ACCEPTKEY environment variable is set to a value the program can't interpret as a key definition — per the official guidance, a valid ACCEPTKEY value must begin with F and be followed by a valid number.

1. ACCEPTKEY missing the required leading F, per the official guidance — the direct, named cause.
2. ACCEPTKEY set to a value with an invalid number following the F, per the official guidance — syntactically close but not a recognized key.
3. A stray or leftover ACCEPTKEY setting inherited from a shell profile or wrapper script, left over from an unrelated purpose.

Solutions / Resolution

1. Set ACCEPTKEY to a valid value, per the official guidance — an F followed by a valid function-key number.
2. If ACCEPTKEY isn't actually needed, unset it rather than leaving an invalid value in place.

Examples

Checking and fixing the environment variable

$ echo "$ACCEPTKEY"
F999
$ export ACCEPTKEY=F1

Diagnostic Checks

1. Check the current value of ACCEPTKEY in the environment, and confirm it begins with F followed by a valid number.

Related Errors / Related Topics

• -1004 — "The selected ACCEPTKEY has been preassigned for ISQL." A related ACCEPTKEY error, about an otherwise-valid key that's reserved rather than one that's malformed.

ACCEPTKEY must be an F followed by a valid number — check the environment variable and correct or unset it.