General Enterprise Server Environment Variables

The following environment variables are applicable to all components of Enterprise Server.

ES_CAS_API
Indicates whether casout or cassub has been executed by a call and not from the command line.
ES_CONSOLE_LOG
Sends console messages to the Windows Event Log.
ES_CSKL_NO_MSG_CONSOLE
Stops CSKL writing messages to console.log.
ES_ELAPSED_DISPATCH_SECONDS
Enables you to specify how frequently casmgr will check for JOBs in the waiting state, in seconds (s), and then start them. The default value is every 5 seconds.
ES_ESM_DISABLE_DFLTUSER_ESMAC
Allows you to disable the default ESMAC user in order to increase the security of your server. Disables the DEFAULT button on the logon screen and forces users to always enter a valid userid and password.
ES_ESMAC_DISP_MAX_OVERRIDE
The number of items displayed in the ESMAC catalog view or lines displayed in a SYSOUT file from the job list view.
ES_LEGACY_ECI
Indicates that Enterprise Server must use Micro Focus ECI instead of IBM CTG.
ES_MAX_CATALOG_LINES
Restricts the number of entries displayed in ESMAC catalog view, and the default is 5000.
ES_MAX_HTTP_OUT [14]
Specifies the maximum size (in bytes) of the HTTP response sent by Enterprise Server.
Note: Previously, this was only controlled by the HTTP Out field on the ESCWA ES Control page.
ES_MEM_STRATEGY
Selects the types of memory processes supported.
ES_OTMA_TIMEOUT
The time that an OTMA client should wait for an answer.
ES_SEP_DORMANT_TIME
Allows override of Transient SEP dormant time.
ES_SERVER
Server name (used if no -r switch is specified on casstart or casstop).
ES_SYSOUT_HOLD
The status of the SYSOUT files are set to Out Hold.
ES_USR_DFLT_ESMAC
Allows you to override the default user when no user is logged on for ESMAC authentication.
ES_WS_RUNAWAY_TIMEOUT
Time in seconds that the client will wait for a response from the web service. Valid values are 0 to 65535 seconds.
ISPPROF
The location of ISPF dialog profiles.
JAVA_HOME
Specifies the location of the JDK.
LANG
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.
Specifies the locale.

Syntax

LANG=language[_territory[.codepage]]
export LANG
Parameters
  • language The language in which your program is to run.
  • _ (underscore) The delimiter for language and territory, if territory is specified.
  • territory The country in which your program is to run.
  • . (period) The delimiter for territory and codepage, if codepage is specified.
  • codepage The character set to use for your program.

Example

LANG=fr_FR
export LANG
LINES
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.
Specifies the depth of the terminal screen or window, overriding the specified terminal default.

Syntax

LINES=n
export LINES

Parameters

n The depth of the terminal screen or window, in lines.

Comments

The default, when LINES is unset or null, is to use the lines value as defined in the specified terminal's terminfo entry, or the current depth of the terminal window if you are using X windows. The terminal type is specified via the standard UNIX environment variable, TERM.

On non-windowing environments, where the terminal screen area cannot be resized, the LINES values does not need to be set.

In windowing environments, where the size of windows can be changed, the initial size of the window is used in preference to the lines value in terminfo. When the window is resized, the new size is reread. If the new size is greater than the initial size then the extra lines might not be used.

If you want to use the full depth of the window you might need to set LINES to the current depth of the window on some platforms.

Using LINES values that do not correspond to the actual depth of the window produces unexpected results.

Example

LINES=50
export LINES
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.

Specifies the directory or directories for the UNIX system, cob command, and the run-time system to search for shared libraries and callable shared objects. If you have installed the product to a directory other than the default one, you must set this variable to include $COBDIR/lib on all platforms except AIX (which uses LIBPATH). It should also include any directories that contain callable shared objects used by your application. If you have installed the product in the default directory (/opt/microfocus/VisualCOBOL), you do not need to set this variable.

Syntax

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=pathname[:pathname]...
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
Parameters

pathname A path or a list of paths, each separated by a colon (:).

Comments

The list of directories must include $COBDIR/lib. The COBDIR environment variable is described earlier.

This environment variable is a system environment variable; see your UNIX documentation for more information.

Example

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$COBDIR/lib:/home/mydir/myapp:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
LIBPATH
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.
Specifies the directory or directories for the UNIX system, Cob and the runtime system to search for shared libraries and callable shared objects. It is only available on AIX-based systems. If you have installed the product to a directory other than the default one, you must set this variable to include $COBDIR/lib. It should also include any directories that contain callable shared objects used by your application. If you have installed the product in the default directory (/opt/microfocus/VisualCOBOL), you do not need to set this variable.

Syntax

LIBPATH=pathname[:pathname]...
export LIBPATH

Parameters

pathname A directory to search for shared libraries.

Example

LIBPATH=$COBDIR/lib:/lib:/usr/lib
MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT
Specifies the format to use for floating point data items. Possible formats are IBM hexadecimal and IEEE.

Syntax

Windows:
SET MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT=fpstatus
UNIX:
MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT=fpstatus
export MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT

Parameters

fpstatus Which format to use for floating point data items. This must be one of:

  • true Specifies that IBM hexadecimal format floating point data items are to be used.
  • false Specifies that IEEE format floating point data items are to be used.

Setting MAINFRAME_FLOATING_POINT to anything other than true has the same effect as setting it to false.

The setting of this environment variable can be overridden by the NATIVE-FLOATING-POINT directive.

MF_AMODE31ONLY
Indicates that all programs are AMODE(31).
MF_CHARSET
Specifies the system character set (ASCII or EBCDIC).
MF_USESCA5
Specifies that the server should use version 5 of the Open Service Component Architecture.
Values:
  • ON (Default)
  • OFF
MFCODESET
Specifies which translation tables to use.
Values
  • On UNIX platforms (requires Visual COBOL Development Hub):A pre-defined country code:
    Important: To specify a Euro codeset, meaning that it includes the Euro symbol (€), prefix an "E" to the appropriate country code listed below. A country code with no "E" prefix indicates a non-Euro code.

    Country Code

    (MFCODESET)

    EBCDIC CCSIDs Language
    AUTOMATIC

    AUTO

    Operating system default - sets country code based on CBL_GET_OS_INFO

    This setting is only applicable on Windows platforms.

    DEFAULT Set to 0437 (US English) on Windows, or 0081 (Japanese Katakana Extended) on Japanese Windows. Set to 0437 (US English) on UNIX.
    0031 37, 1140 Dutch
    0033 297, 1147 French
    0034 284, 1145 Spanish
    0039 280, 1144 Italian
    0043 273, 1141 German (Austrian)
    0044 285, 1146 UK English
    0045 277, 1142 Danish
    0046 278, 1143 Swedish
    0047 277, 1142 Norwegian
    0049 273, 1141 German
    0066 838 Thai Extended
    0081† 930 (290, 300) * Japanese Katakana Extended
    0082 933 (833, 834) *Korean
    0086 13676 (836, 837) *Simplified Chinese
    0351 37, 1140 Portuguese
    0358 278, 1143 Finnish
    0420[4] 420 Arabic

    See Arabic Support Considerations below.

    0437 37, 1140 US English
    0500 500, 1148 International (Latin 1)
    0886 937 (37, 835) *Traditional Chinese
    0930 † 930 (290, 300) *Japanese Katakana Extended
    0939 † 939 (1027, 300) *Japanese Latin Extended
    9122 † 9122 (290, 300) *Japanese Katakana

    Character sets marked with an asterisk (*) are capable of mixed single-byte and double-byte character translation. EBCDIC CCSIDs in these rows indicate the mixed-byte CCSID first, followed by the single-byte, then double-byte Code Page Global Identifiers (CPGIDs) in parenthesis.

    Other EBCDIC CCSIDs in parentheses reflect a 'non-Euro, Euro' pair for appropriate country codes.

    For database applications using a DBMS server on Windows, use the table above.

    For Windows and UNIX database applications accessing a UNIX database created with single-byte character sets 819 or 923, use the following table:
    Country Code

    (MFCODESET)

    EBCDIC CCSIDs Languages
    1140 37,1140 Dutch US English Portuguese
    1141 273,1141 German (Austrian) German
    1142 277,1142 Danish Norwegian
    1143 278,1143 Swedish Finnish
    1144 280,1144 Italian
    1145 284,1145 Spanish
    1146 285,1146 UK English
    1147 297,1147 French
    1148 500,1148 International (Latin 1)
On Windows platforms:

If you are not using UK or US language settings, you must also set the codepage in your PC environment settings:

  • Right click My Computer.
  • Select Properties.
  • Click Advanced system settings.
  • Click Environment Variables.
  • Under System Variables click New.
  • Enter MFCODESET as Variable name and XXXX as Variable value, where XXXX is your chosen codepage.
MFCSCFG
Specifies a configuration file to be used by the Client/Server Binding client program.

Syntax

Windows:
SET MFCSCFG=filename
UNIX:
MFCSCFG=filename
export MFCSCFG

Parameters

filename The name of the configuration file.

Example

Windows:
SET MFCSCFG=/home/mydir/mfclisrv.cfg
UNIX:
MFCSCFG=/home/mydir/mfclisrv.cfg
export MFCSCFG

Comments

The value of MFCSCFG is overridden by any value defined in the command line. If neither of the above yields a filename, the default filename mfclisrv.cfg is assumed, and is searched for in the current directory. If that in turn is not found, the default settings for the configuration entries are used.

MFEXTMAP
Location of a mapper file.
MFLOGDIR
Specifies a directory to be used by Client/Server Binding for log files.

Syntax

Windows:
SET MFLOGDIR=dirname
UNIX:
MFLOGDIR=dirname
export MFLOGDIR

Parameters

dirname The name of the directory for log files.

Example

Windows:
SET MFLOGDIR=/home/mydir/logs
UNIX:
MFLOGDIR=/home/mydir/logs
export MFLOGDIR
MFLECONFIG

Specifies a configuration file for Language Environment (LE) runtime options.

Syntax

Windows:
SET MFLECONFIG=filename
UNIX:
MFLECONFIG=filename
export MFLECONFIG

Parameters

filename The file containing the LE runtime options you want to use.

MFPRELOAD_USE
Calls MFPRELOAD to improve perfomance.
MFRU_NOINHERIT
Note: This variable is only applicable to Windows environments.
Determines if processes are registered in shared memory during initialisation of the run-time system. COBRT105 errors can occur during initialisation if a very large number of COBOL processes are running and there are no available slots in the shared memory segment - setting this variable to Y or TRUE skips the registration process. However, when set to Y, various run-time settings (switches, shared memory, console window settings, etc...) are no longer inherited by any child processes.

When the variable is not set (which is the default), the registration process is not skipped.

Syntax

SET MFRU_NOINHERIT=Y|TRUE

The default is that the variable is not set.

MFSUB
Specifies whether to use SUBI or ASUBI.
MFSYSCATDIR
The location of the system catalog directory.
MFUSER
Default user ID.
MFUSERCAT_LOC
The fully-qualified name of the SMS dataset.
MULTMFENTMAP
Specifies whether special characters such as < and & are replaced with the equivalent HTML entities (for example &lt; and &amp;).
OOSW
OO run-time switches.
PATH
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.

Specifies the directories to be searched by all UNIX programs, including the runtime system, when finding executables to be run.

Syntax

PATH=pathname[:pathname]...
export PATH

Parameters

pathname A directory to search for executables.

Example

PATH=$COBDIR/bin:$PATH
export PATH
TERM
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.
Defines the type of terminal being used.

Syntax

TERM=name
export TERM

Parameters

name The name of the terminal in the terminfo database.

Example

TERM=at386
export TERM
TERMINFO
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.

Specifies the directory to be searched by all UNIX programs, including the runtime system, for the UNIX system terminfo database.

Syntax

TERMINFO=pathname
export TERMINFO

Parameters

pathname The name of a directory that contains the UNIX system terminfo database.

Comments

The UNIX system terminfo database is used by all UNIX applications that need to use a terminal. However, COBOL applications tend to make much fuller and sophisticated use of the terminal and require a fuller terminfo description than is required by typical UNIX applications such as vi. Some terminal capabilities, such as those set during the initialization of the terminal to control the use of function keys, commonly conflict with the needs of typical COBOL applications. In such cases, the terminal information required by COBOL can be stored in a separate terminfo database and referenced using COBTERMINFO.

TMPDIR
Restriction: This environment variable applies to UNIX environments only.
Specifies a directory in which to store temporary files in place of the UNIX system default.

Syntax

TMPDIR=pathname
export TMPDIR

Parameters

pathname The directory used by UNIX applications for any temporary work files. Temporary work files can be created by COBOL utilities such as Cob or by the runtime system when it executes statements such as SORT. If you do not specify a directory, the system default directory is used.

Comments

You might need to use this environment variable if the runtime system needs to page data to disk when creating heaps or sorting.

USER
Default user name.