Additional environment variables

When a service is started, the environment in which the service process is started is inherited from the environment of the queue manager. It is possible to define additional environment variables to be set in the environment of the service process by adding the variables you want to define to one of the service.env environment override files.

Files to which you can add environment variables

There are two possible files to which you can add environment variables:

The machine scope service.env file

This file is located in:

/var/mqm on UNIX and Linux® systems.
The data directory selected during installation on Windows systems.

The queue manager scope service.env file

This file is located in the queue manager data directory. For example, the location of the environment override file for a queue manager named QMNAME is:

- On UNIX and Linux systems, /var/mqm/qmgrs/QMNAME/service.env
- On Windows systems, C:\ProgramData\IBM\MQ\qmgrs\QMNAME\service.env

Both files are processed, if available, with definitions in the queue manager scope file taking precedence over those definitions in the machine scope file.

Environment variables that can be specified in service.env.

Any environment variable can be specified in service.env. For example, if the IBM® MQ service runs a number of commands, it might be useful to set the PATH user variable in the service.env file. The values that you set the variable to cannot be environment variables; for example CLASSPATH= %CLASSPATH% is incorrect. Similarly, on Linux PATH= $PATH :/opt/mqm/bin would give unexpected results.

CLASSPATH must be capitalized, and the class path statement can contain only literals. Some services (Telemetry for example) set their own class path. The CLASSPATH defined in service.env is added to it.

The format of the variables defined in the file, service.env is a list of name and value variable pairs. Each variable must be defined on a new line, and each variable is taken as it is explicitly defined, including white space.

Example of the service.env


  #********************************************************************#
  #*                                                                  *#
  #* <N_OCO_COPYRIGHT>                                                *#
  #* Licensed Materials - Property of IBM                             *#
  #*                                                                  *#
  #* 63H9336                                                          *#
  #* (C) Copyright IBM Corporation 2005, 2024.                        *#
  #*                                                                  *#
  #* <NOC_COPYRIGHT>                                                  *#
  #*                                                                  *#
  #********************************************************************#
  #***********************************************************************#
  #* Module Name: service.env                                            *#
  #* Type       : IBM MQ service environment file                        *#
  #* Function   : Define additional environment variables to be set      *#
  #*              for SERVICE programs.                                  *#
  #* Usage      : <VARIABLE>=<VALUE>                                     *#
  #*                                                                     *#
  #***********************************************************************#
  MYLOC=/opt/myloc/bin
  MYTMP=/tmp
  TRACEDIR=/tmp/trace
  MYINITQ=ACCOUNTS.INITIATION.QUEUE