Using Variables to Set Locations

To define your artifact locations in a region startup file, use environment variables and pseudo-variables.

Define environment variables in your Windows environment, to define the locations that your applications use.
You can also define names and locations in a properties file, which you can specify for a region. The region startup process then creates pseudo-variables for each name-location pair defined in the properties file. The regions that use this startup file can use the pseudo-variables that you define.

When an environment variable and a pseudo-variable of the same name define different paths:

For deployment locations, such as path locations of configuration files deployed to a database,
the pseudo-variable takes precedence over the environment variable. For example, when a region startup process locates a configuration file to deploy to the cross-region database, it uses the path specified in the pseudo-variable.
For run-time locations, such as path locations of maps and programs,
the environment variable takes precedence over the pseudo-variable. That is, when an application uses an artifact, it uses the location path specified in the environment variable.

Note:

If no properties file is specified in a region's startup file, the region startup process creates a properties file that contains name/value pairs for each of the environment variables in the environment space. With the seestart command used to start a region, you can use the -noproperties parameter to prevent the implicit creation of the properties file from occurring.