Informix environment variables

There are required and optional environment variables for Informix® data sources. These variables are set in the db2dj.ini file.

The valid environment variables for Informix are:
  • INFORMIXDIR
  • INFORMIXSERVER
  • INFORMIXSQLHOSTS (optional)
  • CLIENT_LOCALE (optional)
  • DB_LOCALE (optional)
  • DBNLS (optional)

The CLIENT_LOCALE, DB_LOCALE, and DBNLS environment variables are code page environment variables.

Variable descriptions

INFORMIXDIR
Specifies the directory path where the Informix Client SDK software is installed.
For example:
  • On federated servers that run UNIX, set the path to: 
    INFORMIXDIR=/informix/csdk
  • On federated servers the run Windows, set the path to:
    INFORMIXDIR=C:\informix\csdk
INFORMIXSERVER
Identifies the name of the default Informix server. This setting must be a valid entry in the sqlhosts file (UNIX) or the SQLHOSTS registry key (Windows). To get a value for INFORMIXSERVER, read the sqlhosts file. Select one of the dbservername values. The dbservername is the first value in each entry in the sqlhosts file.
For example:
INFORMIXSERVER=inf10
Requirement: Although the Informix wrapper does not use the value of this environment variable, the Informix client requires that this environment variable be set. The wrapper uses the value of the NODE server option, which specifies the Informix database server that you want to access.
INFORMIXSQLHOSTS
If you are using the default path for the Informix sqlhosts file, you do not need to set this environment variable. However, if you are using some other path for the Informix sqlhosts file, then you need to set this environment variable. Set the INFORMIXSQLHOSTS variable to the full path name where the Informix sqlhosts file resides.
  • On federated servers that run UNIX, the default path is $INFORMIXDIR/etc/sqlhosts.
  • On federated servers that run Windows, if the SQLHOSTS registry key does not reside on the local computer, then the value for the INFORMIXSQLHOSTS environment variable is the name of the Windows computer that stores the registry.
A UNIX example of setting this environment variable to another path is:
INFORMIXSQLHOSTS=/informix/csdk/etc/my_sqlhosts