Setting Environment Variables in a Configuration File

The common (shared) environment-configuration file that is provided with IBM Informix products resides in $INFORMIXDIR/etc/informix.rc. Permissions for this shared file must be set to 644.

A user can override the system or shared environment variables by setting variables in a private environment-configuration file. This file must have all of the following characteristics:

• Stored in the user's home directory
• Named .informix
• Permissions set to readable by the user

An environment-configuration file can contain comment lines (preceded by the # comment indicator) and variable definition lines that set values (separated by blank spaces or tabs), as the following example shows:

# This is an example of an environment-configuration file
#
DBDATE DMY4-
#
# These are ESQL/C environment variable settings
#
INFORMIXC gcc
CPFIRST TRUE

You can use the ENVIGNORE environment variable, described in ENVIGNORE (UNIX), to override one or more entries in an environment-configuration file. Use the Informix chkenv utility, described in Checking Environment Variables with the chkenv Utility, to perform a sanity check on the contents of an environment-configuration file. The chkenv utility returns an error message if the file contains a bad environment variable or if the file is too large.

The first time you set an environment variable in a shell file or environment-configuration file, you must tell the shell process to read your entry before you work with your IBM Informix product. If you use a C shell, source the file; if you use a Bourne or Korn shell, use a period ( . ) to execute the file.