Environment variables

Environment variables store information for specific settings in the environment of the connecting client. They store such things as the path to a specific directory or file, a port number, and user names.

The following is a list of environment variables you might set or unset in the dbinit.sde file or the Windows system variables or specify in the direct connection syntax you provide when connecting from a client application, such as ArcGIS Desktop, to a geodatabase.

• ESRI_US_STREETS_DIR

  ESRI_US_STREETS_DIR specifies the folder that stores the ArcGIS StreetMap USA reference data used by the ArcSDE StreetMap USA locators. Set this environment variable to the folder containing the usa.edg file and other .edg StreetMap USA street data files. Note that the value of this environment variable should not contain a trailing slash (/) or backslash (\).

  set ESRI_US_STREETS_DIR=d:\streetmap usa\usa\streets

• GIOMGRLOGREFRESH

  Set GIOMGRLOGREFRESH to true if you want to have the giomgr.log file overwritten each time the ArcSDE service is started. If you want to accumulate the log messages (the default), do not set the variable.

  set GIOMGRLOGREFRESH=TRUE

• LOCATION_ERRLOG

  LOCATION_ERRLOG defines the file to which ArcSDE location errors are logged. The value of this environment variable should contain the fully qualified name of the log file. This file does not need to exist before setting the environment variable because the location framework creates it automatically. ArcSDE location errors will be logged to this file whenever the LOCATION_VERBOSE environment variable is set to true.

  set LOCATION_ERRLOG=c:\temp\location.errlog

• LOCATION_VERBOSE

  Set the LOCATION_VERBOSE environment variable to true to log ArcSDE location errors. If the LOCATION_ERRLOG environment variable is also set, location errors are logged to the specified file. If the LOCATION_ERRLOG environment variable is not set, or the specified file cannot be created, location errors are logged to SDEHOME\etc\location.errlog.

  set LOCATION_VERBOSE=TRUE

• PGHOST or PGHOSTADDR

  (PostgreSQL only) Use the PGHOST variable to set the name of the server on which a remote PostgreSQL database cluster is installed.

  set PGHOST=orwell

  Or, set the PGHOSTADDR to the IP address of the remote database server.

  set PGHOSTADDR=162.44.100.22

  These two settings are mostly useful if you are connecting from an ArcSDE installation on Linux to a remote PostgreSQL database. If the remote PostgreSQL database does not use the default port number or Unix-domain socket, you will also need to set the PGPORT variable.

• PGPORT

  (PostgreSQL only) Use the PGPORT variable to set the TCP port number or Unix-domain socket file extension of the remote PostgreSQL database cluster to which you want to connect.

  set PGPORT=6000

  For more information on PostgreSQL environment variables, consult the PostgreSQL documentation.

• SDEATTEMPTS

  Set SDEATTEMPTS to the number of times you want the session to attempt to connect to an ArcSDE service. Under normal conditions, only one attempt is required; however, should the ArcSDE service become too busy satisfying the connection requests of many users at the same time, several attempts may be required before a session is able to establish a connection. Each time a session fails to establish a connection, it waits until the IP time out occurs. The IP time out is set by your network administrator but defaults to 75 seconds on most operating systems. By default, SDEATTEMPTS is set to 4. This should be adequate for most environments.

  set SDEATTEMPTS=4

• SDE_DATABASE

  SDE_DATABASE can be entered for the DBMS and has multiple database connection possibilities within a single application server. Specifying the database through the application overrides this variable. If the variable is not set and the database is not specified upon connection, the ArcSDE client connects to the default database.

  set SDE_DATABASE=city_eng

  Note:

  In ArcSDE 9.2 and later releases for DB2 and Informix on Windows, the database specified in the ADMIN_DATABASE registry key takes precedence over the database specified with the dbinit SDE_DATABASE variable.

• SDEDBECHO

  SDEDBECHO echoes the contents of the dbinit.sde file during startup. For ArcSDE application servers started locally on a UNIX system, the output of SDEDBECHO is written to the screen. The SDEDBECHO output for an ArcSDE application server started on a remote UNIX ArcSDE application server is written to its sde.errlog file.

  set SDEDBECHO=TRUE

• SDEHOME

  SDEHOME specifies the location where the ArcSDE files are installed. It also determines on which ArcSDE service the administrative commands will operate. This variable can be overridden by the –H option of the commands.

  set SDEHOME=d:\arcgis\arcsde

• SDEINSTANCE

  SDEINSTANCE is set in the environment of the client application and determines to which ArcSDE service name to connect. Specifying the service in the application overrides this variable. If this variable is not set and the service name is not specified in the application, the service name defaults to esri_sde.

  set SDEINSTANCE=esri_sde

• SDEINTERCEPT

  You would set the SDEINTERCEPT variable (along with the SDEINTERCEPTLOC variable) if you needed to capture information that the client or server sends across the TCP/IP port. ESRI customer support might ask you to get this information to troubleshoot certain types of problems. Gathering both the client and server network broadcast can help the technical support analyst diagnose problems unique to either the client or server, since the broadcasts should be symmetric. Any asymmetic broadcasts would indicate information that is not being received on one end.

  After you set this and the SDEINTERCEPTLOC variable, you must restart your ArcSDE service and reproduce the problem steps.

  You can set the SDEINTERCEPT variable with the following flags to intercept network broadcasts: c—Intercept the API command name, r—Intercept the Channel broadcasts read-only, w—Intercept the Channel broadcasts write-only, t—Intercept log time (minute:second), T—Intercept log time (hour:minute:second), and f—Intercept flush immediate

  set SDEINTERCEPT=crwtf

  When you no longer need to intercept the information, you can comment out the SDEINTERCEPT and SDEINTERCEPTLOC variables in the dbinit.sde file by adding a pound sign (#) in front of them and restarting your service.

• SDEINTERCEPTLOC

  Set the SDEINTERCEPTLOC variable, along with the SDEINTERCEPT variable, to capture information the client or server sends across the TCP/IP port.

  For both client and server intercepts, set the SDEINTERCEPTLOC variable to the full path name of the file name prefix that receives the information. When intercept is enabled, a new file is created and written to each time an application connects to the ArcSDE service. The file is closed only after the application disconnects. ArcSDE generates a file name from the prefix provided in SDEINTERCEPTLOC by appending a numeric extension that begins at .001 and increments sequentially for each new file created.

  set SDEINTERCEPTLOC=D:\tmp\sde_server

  If an ESRI technical support analyst asks for intercept output from both the client and server, use distinct prefix names to distinguish between the client and server. For example, setting SDEINTERCEPTLOC to d:\tmp\sde_server in the dbinit.sde file captures server network broadcasts. Setting SDEINTERCEPTLOC to d:\tmp\sde_client in the application's environment captures client network broadcasts in the same directory but with a different prefix.

• SDELOGAPPEND
  Note:

  UNIX only

  Set SDELOGAPPEND to true if you want the sde error log file to accumulate log messages and not be truncated each time the service is restarted. Do not set the variable if you want the sde error logfile to be truncated upon startup.

  set SDELOGAPPEND=TRUE

• SDENOIPTEST

  Set SDENOIPTEST to true if you do not want ArcSDE to test for the presence of the SERVER name in the HOSTS file. By default, SDENOIPTEST is not set. Setting this variable can be useful if you have not set up the HOSTS file. The client will attempt to connect to the server for SDEATTEMPTS (four times by default).

  set SDENOIPTEST=TRUE

• SDEPASSWORD

  SDEPASSWORD specifies the password for the user name entered by the ArcSDE client application. Specifying the password on the application connection tool overrides this variable. If the variable is not set and the password is not specified in the application, the application may prompt for the password. If the application does not prompt for the password, an error is returned.

  set SDEPASSWORD=fools.gold

  If you set this, the connection is attempted using the password set with this environment variable. If you are using operating system (OS) authentication, it fails, since you are trying to use the password of the OS login. This always applies when connecting to ArcSDE geodatabases on SQL Server Express (ArcSDE database servers).

  Note:

  Storing a password with the SDEPASSWORD environment variable is not secure and is not recommended.
• SDESERVER

  SDESERVER determines the host of the ArcSDE service for the connecting client application. This variable can be overridden by specifying the host in the application. If the host is not specified during connection and the SDESERVER variable is not set, the client application attempts to connect to an ArcSDE service running on the local host.

  set SDESERVER=bruno

• SDETMP

  SDETMP allows you to set the temp directory for the servers using this variable, but it will only be checked if the TEMP keyword is not set in the sde_server_config table.

  set SDETMP=c:\temp

• SDETRACELOC

  SDETRACELOC enables tracing and directs the connecting application to the location of the trace files. Tracing begins when an application first connects and ends when the application terminates the connection.

  set SDETRACELOC=<path_to_trace_results_file>

• SDETRACEMODE

  SDETERACEMODE sets the type and amount of information that is written to the trace file. The mode is set with the following parameters:

  Code	Definition	Description
  b	Brief mode	Prints function names only
  v	Verbose mode	Prints names, input, output, and return values
  m	Minute Mode	Prints the time in [min:sec] format between function calls
  h	Hour Mode	Prints the time in [hour:minute:second] format
  f	Force Mode	Forces data to be written to the trace file

  ArcSDE trace mode codes

  The verbose mode has precedence over brief mode, and the hour mode has precedence over the minute mode. Therefore, if the mode is set to brief and verbose, the verbose mode is applied, and if the mode is set to minute and hour, the hour mode is applied. If all five modes are set, the mode of vhf is applied. If you do not set the SDETRACEMODE, it defaults to vhf: verbose, hour mode, force mode. If you use an invalid parameter value with SDETRACEMODE, the value will default to b: brief mode.

• SDEUSER

  SDEUSER specifies the user name through which the ArcSDE client application will connect. Specifying the user name in the application overrides this variable. If this variable is not set and the user name is not specified in the application, an error is returned. A user name must be specified.

  set SDEUSER=bob

  Do not set this environment variable if you will be using operating system authentication for your geodatabase connections. If you set this, the connection is attempted using the user set with this environment variable, which will fail, since you are trying to use operating system authentication.

• SDEVERBOSE

  SDEVERBOSE reports internal messaging to the screen upon startup and writes gsrvr process startup and shutdown messages to sde.errlog.

  set SDEVERBOSE=TRUE