Informix Guide to GLS Functionality Database Server Features

This section provides information that is specific to the use of the GLS feature by database server utilities. For a complete description of utilities, see your Administrator's Reference.

For information about database server utilities for auditing, see the Trusted Facility Manual.

Database server utilities and SQL utilities are client applications that request information from an instance of the database server. Therefore, these utilities use the CLIENT_LOCALE, DB_LOCALE, and SERVER_LOCALE environment variables to obtain the name of a nondefault locale, as follows:

• If a database utility is to use a nondefault code set to accept input (including command-line arguments) and to generate output, you must set the CLIENT_LOCALE environment variable.
• If a database utility accesses a database with a nondefault locale, you must set the DB_LOCALE environment variable.
• If a database utility causes the database server to write data on the server computer that has a nondefault code set, you must set the SERVER_LOCALE environment variable.

These utilities also perform code-set conversion if the database and the client locales support convertible code sets. For more information on code-set conversion, see Performing Code-Set Conversion.

Changes to locale environment variables should also be reflected in the Windows NT registry database under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

Most database server utilities support non-ASCII characters in command-line arguments. These utilities interpret all command-line arguments in the client code set (which CLIENT_LOCALE defines).

The following table shows utilities that accept non-ASCII characters in command-line arguments or produce non-ASCII output.

You can use xctl, the Enterprise Decision Server control utility, to execute other database server utilities such as onstat.

The following SQL utilities also accept non-ASCII characters in command-line arguments and generate any output in the client code set:

• chkenv
• dbexport
• dbimport
• dbload
• dbschema

For a description of the chkenv utility, refer to the Informix Guide to SQL: Reference. For a description of the dbload, dbschema, dbexport, and dbimport utilities, refer to the Informix Migration Guide. For information about DB-Access, see the DB-Access User's Manual.

The DB-Access utility generates labels and messages in the code set of the client locale.

For Enterprise Decision Server, DB-Access accepts multibyte command-line arguments for database and script_file.