Environment variable changes by version

This version of Informix® contains new environment variables and session environment options that might affect your environment. It also contains some changes to existing environment variables.

For more information about environment variables, see the HCL Informix Guide to SQL: Reference and your HCL Informix Administrator's Guide.

Table 1 lists the new or changed environment variables or session environment options in various versions of Informix.

Table 1. New or changed environment variables or session environment options
Version	Environment Variable	Description
12.10.xC8	USE_SHARDING	Controls the scope of sharded queries. When set to 1, sharded queries run on all shard servers in the cluster. For consistent sharded insert, update, and delete operations, sharded transactions are applied with the two phase commit protocol instead of being eventually consistent.
12.10.xC8	IFX_LO_READONLY	New environment variable for Informix JDBC Driver version 4.10.JC8. When set to 1, smart large objects are queried with read-only access in JDBC queries.
12.10.xC6	IFX_SOC_KEEPALIVE	New environment variable for Informix JDBC Driver version 4.10.JC6. When set to `true`, sets the TCP property SO_KEEPALIVE on the socket for open connections. This setting is useful to keep long running idle socket connections from timing out due to inactivity.
12.10.xC5	IFX_AUTO_REPREPARE	The IFX_AUTO_REPREPARE session environment option supports new values that you can use to control how much checking takes place, and when it takes place. 3 = don't check statements that were successfully executed recently (optimistic mode) 5 = check only after update statistics are run 7 = both 3 and 5
12.10.xC4	IFX_PUA_DISPLAY_MAPPING	New environment variable for GLS 6.00.xC4. Ensures that DB-Access and other character-based applications use a mapping file to determine the display width for characters in Unicode Private-Use Area (PUA) ranges.
12.10.xC4	IFX_SESSION_LIMIT_LOCKS	The IFX_SESSION_LIMIT_LOCKS option can be used with the SET ENVIRONMENT SQL statement to override the SESSION_LIMIT_LOCKS configuration parameter for the current session.
12.10.xC3	INFORMIXCONRETRY	The INFORMIXCONRETRY option can be used with the SET ENVIRONMENT SQL statement to override the INFORMIXCONRETRY environment variable for the current session.
12.10.xC3	INFORMIXCONTIME	The INFORMIXCONTIME option can be used with the SET ENVIRONMENT SQL statement to override the INFORMIXCONTIME environment variable for the current session.
12.10.xC3	USE_DWA	The new uniquecheck parameter controls uniqueness checking during the creation of a data mart.
12.10.xC2	DBTIME	In 12.10.xC1 and earlier release versions, the %F directive inserted by default the ASCII 46 character ( . ) between the SECOND and FRACTION field values. Starting in 12.10.xC2, however, the %F directive does not include a separator by default.
12.10.xC2	GL_DATETIME	In 12.10.xC1 and earlier release versions, the %F directive inserted by default the ASCII 46 character ( . ) between the SECOND and FRACTION field values. Starting in 12.10.xC2, however, the %F directive does not include a separator by default.
12.10.xC2	IFX_BAR_NO_BSA_PROVIDER	To be set only at the request of Software Support. Forces ON-Bar to use the sm_versions file as the source of information about the XBSA library for the storage manager.
12.10.xC2	IFX_BAR_NO_LONG_BUFFERS	To be set only at the request of Software Support. Prevents the size of transfer buffers from exceeding 64 KB when the BAR_XFER_BUF_SIZE configuration parameter is set to a long transfer buffer size value.
12.10.xC2	IFX_BAR_USE_DEDUP	Optimizes the deduplication capabilities of storage managers.
12.10.xC2	IFX_TSM_OBJINFO_OFF	Disables support for restoring backup objects that are replicated, imported, or exported between TSM servers.
12.10.xC1	PSM_ACT_LOG	Specifies the location of the HCL Informix Primary Storage Manager activity log for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_ACT_LOG configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
12.10.xC1	PSM_CATALOG_PATH	Specifies the location of the storage manager catalog tables for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_CATALOG_PATH configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
12.10.xC1	PSM_DBS_POOL	Changes the name of the pool in which the storage manager places backup and restore dbspace data for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_DBS_POOL configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
12.10.xC1	PSM_DEBUG	Specifies the amount of debugging information that prints in the storage manager debug log for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_DEBUG configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
12.10.xC1	PSM_DEBUG_LOG	Specifies the location of the storage manager debug log for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_DEBUG_LOG configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
12.10.xC1	PSM_LOG_POOL	Changes the name of the pool in which the storage manager places backup and restore log data for your environment, overriding the value of the PSM_LOG_POOL configuration parameter, for example, for a single session.
11.70.xC1	IFX_UNLOAD_EILSEQ_MODE	Enables DB-Access, the dbexport utility, and the High Performance Loader (HPL) to use character data that is invalid for the locale specified in the environment.
11.70.xC1	LOGINTIMEOUT (supported by the client JDBC driver)	Immediately establishes a connection to the Informix database server if the server is running. If the server is not running, this environment variable specifies how long, in milliseconds, the server port is polled to establish a connection.
11.70.xC1	TRUSTED_CONTEXT (supported by the client JDBC driver)	Specifies if a trusted connection can be established between the database server and the client.
11.50.xC4	IFX_LARGE_PAGES (AIX® and Solaris)	Enables the use of large pages for non-message shared memory segments that are resident in physical memory. When large pages have been configured by operating system commands and the RESIDENT configuration parameter is set appropriately, this feature can offer significant performance benefits for large memory configurations.
11.50.xC4	IFX_NO_SECURITY_CHECK	Turns off the utilities that check the security of $INFORMIXDIR when the database server is started. Use this environment variable only when necessary to fix a security flaw in your Informix installation.
11.50.xC4	ONINIT_STDOUT (Windows)	Captures the output of the oninit command on Windows systems.
11.50.xC3	IFX_LOB_XFERSIZE	Provides error checking when transmitting large CLOB or BLOB data types from clients to the database server.
11.50.xC3	CDR_DISABLE_SPOOL	Prevents the generation of ATS and RIS files.
11.50.xC3	CDR_ATSRISNAME_DELIM	Sets the delimiter for the timestamp portion of the ATS and RIS file names.
11.50.xC3	IFX_NOT_STRICT_THOUS_SEP	Removes enforcement of the restriction that three digits must exist after the thousand separator.
11.10	IFX_AUTO_REPREPARE	Controls whether the database server automatically recompiles prepared objects and reoptimizes SPL routines that reference tables whose schemas change Enabling the IFX_AUTO_REPREPARE session environment variable can avoid many -710 errors, and can reduce the number of manual reprepare and reoptimize operations after the schema of a table is modified
11.10	IFX_NODBPROC	An environment variable that enables or prevents the execution of a sysdbopen( ) or sysdbclose( ) procedure
10.00.xC4	BAR_SORT_DBS	A variable (used only in Version 10.00.xC4 and later Version 10.00 fix packs) for backup and restore operations when the scope is not the whole system.
10.0	IFX_EXTDIRECTIVES	A client-side external optimizer directive to use as a temporary solution to problems when you do not want to change SQL statements in queries
10.0	IFX_NO_TIMELIMIT_ WARNING	Supports time-limited license
10.0	IFX_ONPLOAD_AUTO_ UPGRADE	Automatically upgrades the onpload database the first time you start the HPL utility with the ipload or onpladm command after you migrate to a new database server version
10.0	STDIO	A TAPEDEV configuration parameter variable that improves the speed of high-availability cluster setup